Thibaut Courtois is set to be sidelined for around six weeks after sustaining a thigh injury during Tuesday’s 2-1 victory over Manchester City, sources told ESPN.
The Real Madrid goalkeeper was replaced by Andriy Lunin for the second half of the Champions League round of 16 second leg, in which two goals from Vinícius Júnior sealed a 5-1 aggregate victory for the Spanish side.
A statement published by Real Madrid on Thursday read: “Following tests carried out today on our player Thibaut Courtois by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a muscle injury in the rectus femoris of his right quadriceps. His recovery will be monitored.”
The injury comes as a huge blow to Real, who will be without their talismanic goalkeeper for Sunday’s Madrid derby against Atlético in LaLiga, and both legs of their Champions League quarterfinal against Bayern Munich.
Should he remain sidelined for the full six weeks, Courtois will miss seven games across all competitions.
With Real four points behind Barcelona at the top of LaLiga, Álvaro Arbeloa will hope that he can have the Belgian back in his starting lineup for El Clásico at Camp Nou on May 10.
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Barcelona goalkeeper Joan García also suffered his own injury scare during Wednesday night’s 7-2 victory over Newcastle United.
But, despite the Spaniard having to be replaced by Wojciech Szczesny, Barcelona confirmed on Thursday that medical tests had shown no evidence of injury, and that García would be available for selection for Sunday’s match against Rayo Vallecano.
Information from ESPN’s Rodra contributed to this report.
