Trent Alexander-Arnold has been ruled out of Real Madrid’s Club World Cup semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday evening.
The England international has played in all five of Madrid’s Club World Cup matches so far following his £8.4 million move from Liverpool at the start of June.
However, Alexander-Arnold will miss Madrid’s semi-final at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey after he suffered a muscular injury in training on Tuesday.
‘Yesterday [Tuesday] he felt something, a small discomfort but not good enough to play today,’ Madrid head coach Xabi Alonso said before the semi-final against PSG.
‘For sure it’s a blow. But we need to deal with that, it’s part of the job and hopefully we won’t miss him.
Get personalised updates on Liverpool every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
‘We need to defend as a team, to defend as a unit, a good performance competing with the ball and against the ball, it’s a big challenge today.’
Madrid have not yet confirmed the extent of Alexander-Arnold’s injury and whether he could recover in time for the Club World Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday.
Real Madrid vs PSG line-ups
PSG: Donnarumma; Hakimi, Marquinhos, Beraldo, Mendes; Neves, Vitinha, Ruiz; Doue, Dembele, Kvaratskhelia
Real Madrid: Courtois; Valverde , Rudiger, Asencio, Fran Garcia; Guler, Tchouameni, Bellingham; Vinicius, Mbappe, Gonzalo Garcia
Federico Valverde will replace Alexander-Arnold at right-back, while Raul Asencio comes in for the suspended Dean Huijsen in central defence.
Kylian Mbappe also starts for the first time this tournament after he was hospitalised last month due to acute gastroenteritis.
The France international, who has lost 6kg due to his illness, has made two substitute appearances against Juventus and Borussia Dortmund.
PSG, meanwhile, have to make one enforced change from their 2-0 win against Bayern Munich in the quarter final as Beraldo replaces the suspended Willian Pacho.
Luis Enrique has also opted to start Ousmane Dembele in attack with Bradley Barcola dropping to the bench.
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.