Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says both Karim Benzema and Raphael Varane are out of Saturday's home La Liga game against Eibar, but the pair could return for Tuesday's Champions League quarterfinal second leg at home to Wolfsburg.
Madrid go into the weekend with Blancos fans after following an impressive 2-1 La Liga Clasico win at Barcelona with a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Wolfsburg in the first leg of their last-eight tie on Tuesday.
Benzema was substituted before half-time at Wolfsburg with a knee injury, while Varane has not played since picking up a reported calf muscle issue with France during the recent international break.
The Blancos coach told a news conference that neither France international would be ready to face Eibar in La Liga on Saturday, but he was hopefully both his fellow countrymen could return for the crunch clash with Wolfsburg three days later.
"The idea with Karim and Rafa is that they keep training apart from the group," Zidane said. "At the moment Karim still has pain from the blow to his knee. Both are doing individual work, I hope to have both players ready for Tuesday."
Zidane said he had rewatched Wednesday's game in Germany and decided his immediate postgame analysis that the team had lacked sufficient intensity had been mistaken, that the defeat had actually been caused by an inability to react to Wolfsburg's two, quick first-half goals.
"We were lacking something, for sure, but not intensity," he said. "It was the second game in which we ran most all season, at high intensity, more than in Barcelona. I said that about intensity after the game, but I watched it back again and we came out strong in first 15 minutes, had chances to score.
"The mistake was something else -- they scored two quick goals and we were not able to turn the game around. But it can happen, it did happen, and is behind now. We focus on what we have tomorrow, an important game, and then Tuesday."
Zidane said he did not want the fallout from one surprise defeat to take away from his team having been in good form recently.
"We know we messed up, but we must move on now," he said. "We have been playing well recently, and that is not all rubbed out in just one game. I am not one who goes too high after we beat Barcelona, it was very nice, but just three points. And neither after what happened the other day will I go crazy. I focus on my own things, and the players the same, they know what happened, and what they must do now."
TV pictures of substitute James Rodriguez laughing on the bench with 10 minutes to go, and his team 2-0 down, have not gone down well with some Madrid fans, and Zidane accepted the images had not helped the situation.
"Of course, but [James] knows that," he said. "It is just two or three seconds, but he knows perfectly that it can be taken like that. He must learn from these things too. Nobody likes to see it -- but we must put it aside now. He is focused and committed to the project like everyone."
Zidane said he did not regret the controversial decision to start Danilo at right-back in Wolfsburg, even after the Brazilian struggled throughout the game by direct opponent Julian Draxler, and has since been criticised by the Madrid-based media.
"I'm not sorry for anything, although I take responsibility," Zidane said. "Danilo did not play as badly as I am hearing. We all had a bad game, not just Danilo. It is easy to signal one individual, but I like to do things differently."
Sergio Ramos is suspended in La Liga following the club captain's sending off at the Camp Nou last Saturday so, with Varane still sidelined, Nacho Fernandez could start alongside Pepe at centre-back as Madrid hope to make up a gap of seven points to La Liga leaders Barcelona with just seven games remaining.
"Tomorrow Cristiano [Ronaldo] will play," he said. "There will be rotation for sure -- but just thinking about tomorrow's game, to win this game. We want to start strongly, and not give our opponent any chance. We cannot drop any more points, that is really clear, as we have lost too many already."
Zidane, one of Real's much-vaunted Galacticos as a player but now a novice coach, admitted that the next few days could go a long way to deciding his own future at the Bernabeu, but claimed to enjoy this type of difficult situation.
"I know what comes with this job," he said. "Everything can change, of course, that is part of football. At the moment I am just thinking about the rest of this season, then we will see what happens. People are saying [the tie against Wolfsburg] is even -- 50-50. I like this idea of playing a game where it will be difficult."