Zidane spares Real Madrid players, Mourinho can breathe easy

Zinédine Zidane has already shown, during his first gatherings as head of the France team, that he knows how to spare injury-prone players — an approach that should ease José Mourinho’s concerns ahead of this new international break.

The Real Madrid manager had not hidden his anxiety after his team’s victory in Valencia. “I am worried about the international break because, if they stay with me and my staff, we could give them special attention for their recovery,” he had said, pointing to the difficulty of balancing club and national team imperatives.

The facts, however, speak in Zidane’s favor. During the September gathering, Aurélien Tchouaméni, barely recovered from an injury, was left out of the squad to consolidate his physical condition. Kylian Mbappé, meanwhile, was sent back to Madrid as soon as his physical problem appeared in Turkey, which allowed him to be available for the club’s return.

This cautious management contrasts with the traditional mistrust of club managers toward international windows, often seen as a source of additional risks. Mourinho had moreover acknowledged, during the previous gathering, that he had not communicated directly with Zidane about Tchouaméni — a lack of communication that nonetheless did not prevent the manager from acting in the way the club wished.

The debate over the “FIFA virus” — an expression that refers to injuries contracted on international duty — is recurring in European football. Clubs point to travel fatigue and match intensity; managers remind them that injuries also happen every weekend in the league. Zidane, meanwhile, seems to have chosen a pragmatic path: protecting Real Madrid players when the situation requires it, without waiting for Mourinho to ask him to.