Kylian Mbappé will not play Sunday night at the Camp Nou, leaving Real Madrid without its most dangerous forward for a Clásico that Barcelona can use to clinch the league title. Madrid said Mbappé did not feel in perfect condition at the end of Saturday’s training session and left before practice was finished.
The decision comes two weeks after Mbappé injured the semitendinosus muscle in his left leg against Betis, and it will be the 11th full match he misses in 2026. He had completed Friday’s session with the rest of the squad, but his condition worsened enough on Saturday for the club to pull him out of the final workout. Madrid has already lost him to a left-knee problem and to this muscle injury in a season that has repeatedly been interrupted by fitness issues.
Real Madrid said the objective was for Mbappé to reach the Clásico, but Sunday’s game comes too soon. The club’s next match is at home against Oviedo next Thursday, a timeline that gives Mbappé another chance to recover after a stop-start run that has already seen him miss the Supercopa semifinal against Atlético, the second leg of the Champions League playoff against Benfica and the first leg of the round of 16 against Manchester City. He only played the final minutes of the Supercopa final against Barcelona and the second leg against City.
Madrid’s absence list does not stop there. Carvajal, Militão, Mendy, Ceballos, Valverde, Güler and Rodrygo will also miss the trip to the Camp Nou because of injury, with Ceballos left out of the squad by technical decision for the third consecutive match. Valverde is out after receiving stitches on his forehead during a fight with Tchouaméni and has been ruled out by a traumatic brain injury, with about 10 more days expected before he returns.
That fight still hangs over the match. Real Madrid fined Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni 500,000 euros after the serious confrontation, even as Tchouaméni traveled to Barcelona and Thibaut Courtois also made the trip after recovering from injury. The squad that arrives for a game that could decide the title is thinner than Madrid wanted, and Mbappé’s late withdrawal is the sharpest loss of all.
