Casemiro needs more than just a massage Real Madrid Carlos Carpio's opinion

The anecdote is known, it happened during the time of the Galactico, after a training session which involved a number of the greats. Several players met at the same time in the physio's room.

They were Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Roberto Carlos and Raul, all together waiting for a massage session as if it were a fish market. There were not enough hands for so many stars and it was the great Brazilian who took the decision. However, the first massage would not be for Zizou, nor for Figo, not even for Raul, and look what Raul was doing at the time... but no, the first to be given the necessary massage was Claude Makelele, a relative newcomer. A quiet guy who fit in more with the Pavones than with the Zidanes.

Ronaldo was clear when explaining the decision to his famous teammates: 'Let him rest his legs well, so that tomorrow he can run for all of us so we can win.'

Amen, they all responded.

At least 15 years have passed and medical practices have evolved, mainly due to technological resources, so such a situation isn't going to happen either today or next Tuesday, but if it were to occur there would also be unanimity within the Los Blancos dressing room: give Casemiro the massage, he's earned it.

On Wednesday, Real Madrid played an inconsequential match in Bruges and the Brazilian midfielder played the entire 90 minutes, which was a surprise decision taken by Zinedine Zidane, which few understood. He is just one yellow card away from a suspension and thus logic suggests that he won't play against Valencia on Sunday in order to avoid being suspended for the Clasico. A Real Madrid team starting at the Camp Nou without Casemiro is something not worth thinking about.

The biggest indication that there is a player who is irreplaceable in the current Real Madrid squad is the fact that Casemiro has played in 96.8 percent of the club's minutes this season. He has only missed 60 minutes of football across all competitions, so it is easy to understand that Zidane doesn't want to take him away, even in a training match. That's why he played in Bruges.

What is no longer so easy to understand is how it is possible that his is the only position that has no natural replacement, whilst in attack there are triple and even quadruple positions. Nor, is it clear, just why Marcos Llorente was allowed to leave for Atleti (where he is playing even less than with Los Blancos) without first securing a replacement. However, the most inexplicable thing is that in the rumours of potential midfield reinforcements, there were the well-known names of Paul Pogba, Donny van de Beek, Christian Eriksen, Fabian Ruiz and even Martin Odegaard, but all of them have an attacking profile. Yet, there is no apparent movement on finding a player that can prevent Casemiro from burning out, something that seems inevitable sooner or later.