Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema left the pitch with an ankle injury during Los Blancos’ La Liga match against Sporting Gijon on Sunday.

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Benzema Injury Caused by Madrid Team-Mate

Sunday, January 17

Benzema’s outing against Sporting Gijon came to a sudden end when he took an accidental kick to the ankle from team-mate James Rodriguez, per ESPN FC’s Dermot Corrigan.

He was able to walk around, but manager Zinedine Zidane made the decision to take him off the pitch and bring on Mateo Kovacic regardless, per the club’s official Twitter account.

The France international’s absence would be a blow to Los Blancos as they vie for the La Liga title with archrivals Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.

The forward is a regular contributor of goals, so Real will miss his clinical finishing, not to mention his creativity and ability to link up well with Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo.

In his stead, Zidane has few forward options and could turn to the relatively untested Jese to fill in for Benzema.

Alternatively, the Frenchman could opt to field another midfielder and push Ronaldo into a central striking role—though that was something Zidane’s predecessor, Rafael Benitez, tried out with mixed results.

Ronaldo might just have to put up with a temporary switch to centre-forward, though, as adding another midfielder would allow Zidane to make more use of £24.5 million summer signing Kovacic, who has largely been restricted to the bench since arriving from Inter Milan. 

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