Fede Valverde went to hospital after a new altercation with Aurélien Tchouaméni at Real Madrid, in a crisis that erupted in the dressing room at the end of training and forced the club to open disciplinary proceedings against both players.
Several dressing-room members described the episode as “el más grave jamás vivido en Valdebebas,” a phrase that matched the scale of what unfolded after a morning in which Valverde reportedly refused to shake Tchouaméni’s hand. The clash came after a session in which hard tackles, especially by Valverde, were constant, according to the same sources.
Valverde suffered a strong contusion that caused a cut, though the injury was described internally as involuntary and not caused by a blow from Tchouaméni. The midfielder’s trip to hospital gave the incident immediate weight inside the club, where the damage was no longer limited to a heated exchange but had already become a matter for medical attention and discipline.
The confrontation did not come out of nowhere. Tension in Real Madrid’s dressing room had already failed to ease after a fight the day before between Valverde and Tchouaméni, and the club has grown increasingly concerned about internal division and an escalation it wants to stop. That broader deterioration in coexistence now hangs over a squad that cannot afford the distraction.
A few minutes after the altercation, Real Madrid held an emergency meeting in the dressing room, with José Ángel Sánchez visiting the squad during the crisis meeting. No player left the Ciudad Deportiva while the talks were under way, a sign of how quickly the club moved to contain the fallout and curb the tension before it spread further. The next test for Madrid is not only whether the disciplinary process calms things down, but whether two players at the centre of the storm can be kept in the same room long enough for the season to keep moving. For a team preparing for Athletic - Villarreal: Valverde demands three points at San Mamés, the timing could hardly be worse.
