From the perspective of Atlético, and look where you look, it is not a good time to play the derby . Bernabéu appears in the worst rojiblanca season since Simeone landed , a few months in which the team does not win even half of the games it plays (specifically has won in 13 of 30, 43% looking at all competitions). The Bernabéu appears with the group outside the Champions League positions , something that did not happen - to play a derby so poorly classified - since October 2015 . And the Bernabeú appears, in short, with the infirmary full of several of its stars. The last Joao Felix , prisoner of a "muscular injury in the right leg . " So in general. Out of the cold medical parts, the boy has for 10 or 15 days, although that in Atlético is little to say.

Joao is the injury number 18 so far this season , number 14 if written only of muscle mishaps , multiplied, by the way, since last December. Vitolo, Lodi, Giménez, Trippier, Lemar, Arias and Koke , which counts for two (fell to the semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup) leave a bleak picture for the Argentine coach, who prays to all known saints to be able to count on the captain the day after tomorrow at La Castellana. Trippier does seem to arrive in time to play. In any case, what is certain is that Costa, Joao, Giménez and Arias will not be there.

The situation was attributed to "bad luck" yesterday from the club. It happens that history denies this possibility, among other things because it is not the first season in which the first team walks with an amazing number of injuries. Last year, for example, Atlético suffered 45 injuries , practically five a month, with practically not one per week. Then, also from inside the institution an excuse was used: it was the first year that the preseason did not take place in Los Angeles de San Rafael , and that had damaged the state of the team.

Well, that alibi does not work for the present , since last summer, the Atletico was in Segovia. Specifically 13 days, from July 7 to 20. And the thing remains the same. Far from the official versions, the spotlights point to two places . The first is the office of the physical trainer of the team. Prof Ortega, praised until exhaustion in the first years of Simeone, now sees how that intensity, which sometimes borders on histrionism, is no longer valued. In fact, some players whisper quietly that work volumes are not always the most appropriate, especially in the days before and after the games. Of course, here is a problem because for Simeone , the figure of Ortega is practically sacred.

Of the suspicions neither the medical services are freed , headed by the eternal doctor José María Villalón . Better written, suspicion does not get rid of the tug of war that is always between doctors and the coaching staff. The acceleration of some recoveries may be behind relapses . The last of these relapses is that of Koke , who does not have the medical discharge but that could be the only good news of the team in his visit to the neighbor's field, from which he could definitely be removed in case of defeat.

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