Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale will be available for Real Madrid against Villarreal on Wednesday, Zinedine Zidane has confirmed.
The superstar duo missed Sunday’s 2-0 win at Espanyol due to illness and a hip injury respectively.
It mattered little as James Rodriguez and Karim Benzema provided the goals in a comfortable success that maintained Madrid’s perfect start to the LaLiga campaign.
Head coach Zidane will now be boosted by the return of Ronaldo and Bale for Wednesday’s meeting with Villarreal at Santiago Bernabeu.
“Bale and Cristiano are ready for tomorrow’s match,” said the Frenchman in a media conference.
Ronaldo and Bale continue to look sharp in training as they prepare for a shot at history with Real Madrid on Wednesday.
The pair seemed to be in good spirits during a session at Madrid’s training ground on Tuesday, with both playing a full part under Zidane’s supervision.
Los Blancos currently top La Liga, having won each of their opening four league matches.
Zidane’s men hold a three-point lead over Barcelona going into the visit of the Yellow Submarine, who have eight points from their four outings to date and are unbeaten this term.
Bale and Ronaldo will be hoping to inspire their side to the La Liga record for consecutive victories when Villarreal arrive in Madrid on Wednesday.
The win against Espanyol was Real’s 16th in a row in the competition – setting a club record and drawing level with the best ever sequence in the division, which was posted by Pep Guardiola’s Barca side in 2010-11.
The current streak bettered a Real record which had stood for 35 years. Miguel Munoz’s 1960-61 team enjoyed 15 victories on the bounce.
‘It’s nice to get the record – it comes from the work all the lads are doing, they’re doing phenomenally,’ Zidane said.
‘We are going to try to get the three points, we don’t look at others. We haven’t won anything. The records are nice and we want to continue winning. I take it day by day.
‘It’s never easy to win. We have to think about our match. If we want to win something we have to win our matches.”
However, Real could be without defender Pepe, who sat out training on Tuesday.
“Pepe didn’t train today, but the other four defenders can play. Nacho can play in the centre and also on the side,” added Zidane, before playing down Madrid’s strong start to the 2016-17 season.
“We’ve had little time to prepare for the match, but we are prepared,” he said.
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