Atletico Madrid forced to call up kids for Champions League clash with Chelsea as 5 crucial stars are injured

Atletico Madrid forced to call up kids for Champions League clash with Chelsea as 5 crucial stars are injured

Babajide Orevba
updated at April 12, 2023 at 7:42 PM
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- Diego Simeone will see his side go head-to-head with Premier League side Chelsea in the Champions League

- The Colchoneros host the Blues on Tuesday night at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium

- Atletico who will be without five key players including Carrasco have called stars from their youth team

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Atletico Madrid have suffered a massive injury blow ahead of their all-important Champions League found of 16 first leg against Chelsea.

Reports from Spain have it that the La Liga side are heading into the showdown with a depleted team and manager Diego Simeone has summoned four youth-teamers to complete the 21-man squad.

Yannick Carrasco, who scored in the 2016 final, will miss out due to a foot injury having also been unavailable for Saturday's surprise 2-0 defeat at home to Levante.

A club statement read via SunSport:

"Yannick Carrasco has suffered a post-traumatic injury of the left leg musculature, an MRI scan and a medical ultrasound performed at the Clinica Universidad de Navarra confirmed the injury.
"The Belgian is pending response to treatment."

Defender Jose Gimenez, right-back Sime Vrsaljko and midfielder Hector Herrera will all be unavailable for the encounter on Tuesday night, February 23.

Kieran Trippier will also miss out after he received a hefty ban for breaching strict FA betting rules.

His ban will lapse till the first week of March 2021, which means he will likely be available for the reverse fixture against the Blues, scheduled for March 17.

Consequently, he will miss his side’s 11 domestic fixtures and expected to be officially back during the Madrid derby.

The likes of Luis Suarez, Jan Oblak and Joao Felix are all in the mix to start. And Chelsea could face a familiar face in Arsenal loanee Lucas Torreira.

Atletico Madrid forced to call up kids for Champions League clash with Chelsea as 5 crucial stars are injured
Diego Simeone has called on players in the youth-team. Photo: Nicolò Campo
Source: Getty Images

Spanish football legend Fernando Torres has however kicked off his managerial career following his appointment as the new Atletico Madrid B boss.

The 36-year-old announced his retirement after just one year with Sagan Tosu in the Japanese topflight in August 2019.

Torres got his professional football reign started at Atletico and also spent time at Liverpool, Chelsea, AC Milan before heading to Asia where he finally hanged his boots.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng earlier reported that French forward Antoine Griezmann made a trip to Lyon immediately after his side Barcelona were handed a 4-1 humiliating defeat in the first leg round of 16 Champions League tie by PSG.

Reports have it that some Barcelona fans are upset with the player by his decision to make the trip to France after they were beaten.

Impressive Paris Saint-Germain handed Barcelona a stunning defeat right at the Camp Nou as the UEFA Champions League action returned on Tuesday night, February 16.

Babajide is a digital publishing expert, an avid sports content thinker, researcher and writer. He is a graduate of Guidance and Counselling, having bagged his B.SC (ED) from the Ekiti State University. He can be reached on Twitter @JideOrevba

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Babajide Orevba
Babajide Orevba is a CAF accredited Nigerian journalist and HOD of the Local Desk with over 10 years of experience in media landscape.He studied NCE Political Science/Social Studies, AOCOED.
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