Real Madrid stars have returned to their Valdebebas training ground after a day of chaos rocked the club in the build-up to this weekend’s El Clasico against loathed opponents Barcelona.
Spanish outlets revealed on Thursday that a fight between Aurelien Tchouameni and Fede Valverde started a day before had spilled into a physical confrontation, with the Uruguay star taken to hospital after hitting his head on a table and cutting his forehead.
Real Madrid announced that the club would be opening disciplinary proceedings against both players in the aftermath of the fracas, with Valverde opting to release a statement stressing that neither he nor the France international hit one another.
Although Valverde is set to rest at home for 10 to 14 days – missing the final showpiece match of the season – Tchouameni was forced to face the music early on Friday morning, with cameras capturing his grim-faced drive to training.
By contrast Kylian Mbappe was all smiles, as he had been on Thursday afternoon when he left the complex apparently laughing to himself as he drove away.
The original argument is believed to have stemmed from a foul one player gave the other during Wednesday’s session, with heated words spilling into their return to the dressing room.
Aurelien Tchouameni cut a downcast figure as he made his way to training with Real Madrid
His team-mate for club and country Kylian Mbappe however looked in the highest spirits again
But hostilities increased when the players returned the following day, with head coach Alvaro Arbeloa believed to have held an emergency crisis meeting after Valverde’s departure to hospital in a bid to break the tension.
Valverde’s statement on Thursday evening suggested that the reality of ending a season without silverware had made everything seem ‘blown out of proportion’.
The Manchester United transfer target added that he believed someone in the dressing room was ‘spreading rumours’.
‘I feel that my anger about the situation, frustration at seeing some of us struggling to get through end of season, giving it our all, pushed me to the point of arguing with a teammate,’ Valverde wrote in the lengthy statement. ‘I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry because this situation hurts me, this moment we’re going through is painful.
‘Real Madrid is one of the most important things in my life and I can’t be indifferent to it. The result is accumulation of things that culminate in a senseless fight, damaging my image and leaving room for doubt that they will add fuel to the fire of an accident.
‘I wasn’t going to speak out until the end of the season. We were eliminated from the Champions League, and I kept my anger and resentment to myself.
‘We’ve wasted another year, and I wasn’t in a position to be posting on social media when the only face I had to show was on the field, and I feel that’s what I did. That’s why I’m the one who’s most saddened and pained to be going through this situation that prevents me from playing the next match due to medical decisions.
‘I always gave it my all, to the very end, and it hurts me more than anyone not to be able to do so. I am available to the club and my teammates to collaborate on any decision they deem necessary. Thank you.’
Fede Valverde posted a long statement to social media confirming that he and Tchouameni had not hit each other
The team-mates’ physical confrontation is said to have stemmed from a snubbed handshake
Mbappe could not contain his laughter as he drove away from the training ground on Thursday
This week’s drama comes against the backdrop of a noxious atmosphere at the Bernabeu which appears to have only been getting more toxic.
Antonio Rudiger was believed to have ‘slapped’ his team-mate Alvaro Carreras, with the latter issuing a statement appearing to confirm the confrontation, while Mbappe has come under heavy scrutiny for holidaying on a yacht with his girlfriend while recovering from injury.
Mbappe has also been accused in the Spanish press of becoming involved in a heated confrontation with a member of Arbeloa’s staff.
Division in the dressing room is thought to be rife, with a number of team-mates not speaking to one another, and as many as six refusing to speak to the manager himself.
Daily Mail Sport reported on Friday that even the players’ families are becoming wrapped up in the melodrama in Madrid, with two unnamed stars believed to have been promoted by their parents personally to club president Florentino Perez in a bid to receive more playing time.
Arbeloa will now attempt to corral his unruly players just days before meeting champions-in-waiting Barcelona at Camp Nou in a bid to avoid handing the title to their bitter foe with a humiliating defeat.
