Atletico Madrid will be delighted with the form of Alvaro Morata, who netted his 10th goal of the season against Alaves on Sunday night, further affirming his brilliant start to the season. It’s driving Los Colchoneros to results, but also covering up the absence of their other star striker.

Memphis Depay has not been available for over a month now, and the reality is that he has barely been available all season. While he has scored twice in his four appearances, Diego Simeone has only been able to use him for 139 minutes this season, the last of which was an eight-minute cameo against Real Madrid. He has missed the other 9 of their 13 games.

The 29-year-old has been nursing muscle injuries during that period, and Kiko Narvaez has revealed on Cadena SER that his injury issues could be down to work he was doing with his personal trainer.

According to Narvaez, there have been disagreements between his personal physical trainer (now no longer employed) and the club over what was causing his injuries. His personal trainer believed it was due to explosive movements, while the club were of the opinion it was down to his thigh muscles, and preferred that he worked in a different manner.

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