Another huge potential absence for Real Madrid vs. Atletico Madrid besides Kylian Mbappe

Real Madrid are coming off the holiday break and have some huge matchups on the horizon, including their second El Derbi of the season against Atletico Madrid, who embarrassed them the first time around.

Los Blancos will face Atleti on Thursday, January 8 in the Spanish Supercup semifinals, and they may have to play without superstar striker Kylian Mbappe, who has been the team’s brightest spot this season.

Mbappe has been playing with a left knee injury, but a recent MRI scan proved that he really should not be playing through the injury, lest he make it a whole lot worse.

So Mbappe is one high profile potential absence against Atleti. But according to a report from Miguel Angel Diaz of COPE, another superstar player in center back Dean Huijsen may also miss the game.

He has an overload of the rectus muscle in the thigh (not the rectum, as the bad Grok translation will have you think), and he is therefore out agianst Real Betis in La Liga with an uncertain status for the Atletico Madrid game.

While Huijsen was beyond horrible in the blowout loss to Atleti earlier this season, he is one of the team’s best defenders, and the options to replace him like Antonio Rudiger and Raul Asencio are much, much worse.