Kylian Mbappe injury mystery: Real Madrid staff disagree with camp over recovery time

The status of Kylian Mbappe’s knee has become a question of state at Real Madrid. The French forward has been battling pain for the past three months, and has now missed their last two games as a result, taking the total number of matches he has sat out to six in 2026. There is no clarity on when he will be back.

Mbappe has reportedly been disappointed with the handling of his injury by Real Madrid’s medical staff, and traveled to France this week for a second a opinion on the matter. Less than 24 hours later, Real Madrid announced that he had a knee sprain.

Real Madrid staff believe Mbappe will be out for 3 weeks

The word from the Spanish capital has been that Mbappe could be back for their Champions League Round of 16 return tie with Manchester City, say Cadena SER, a total time out of around three weeks. Manager Alvaro Arbeloa declared before Los Blancos face Benfica that he would be fit to do so, then admitted they were taking his situation day-by-day. By the end of the week, Arbeloa admitted that it could be weeks not days before Mbappe returns.

Mbappe’s camp concerned about World Cup

Yet the player’s camp disagree with that assessment, and feel that he could miss months of action. Anton Meana explains that the message from those around Mbappe is that he could need all three months before the World Cup to recover properly. They believe that it is not ‘just’ a sprain, but that Mbappe’s exterior knee ligaments have been impacted.

As things stand, there is no certainty over when Mbappe will be back. What hopes Real Madrid have left in La Liga and the Champions League seem slim without Mbappe, who has scored or assisted (44) over half of Real Madrid’s 87 goals thus far.

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