Madrid (AFP)

Eden Hazard did not train on Monday and Zinédine Zidane confirmed that the Belgian international striker was further injured after playing his first 15 minutes since January Saturday against Elche (2-1), an important forfeit that Zidane "did not can explain ", on the eve of the shock against Atalanta.

Main points from Zinédine Zidane and Karim Benzema's press conference, Monday:

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Hazard, still hurt

Zinédine Zidane (Real Madrid coach): "Eden will not be in condition to be with us for tomorrow's game (Tuesday). These are things that I cannot explain. I hope it will not be serious. He's a player who hasn't had an injury in his career, I can't tell you anything more ... We're with him, we're helping him, and we hope he'll come back soon to help us, because we need Eden. I don't think there is a particular problem, we have very competent people here, who are there every day with the players. injuries, but there are things that cannot be explained. These are things that happen in football. There is the preseason (shortened), the number of matches, a lot of things in the head too, it plays a lot ... ".

Karim Benzema (Real Madrid striker): "Eden has had no luck since arriving in Madrid. It makes me a little sad for him, everyone knows that Eden is a great player, who can help us a lot on the field. He is also sad. He wants to prove that he is one of the stars of this world, and we are here to help him. I hope he can recover quickly and come back with us, because we need him ".

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Capital match?

Zidane: "I've been here for 20 years, as a player, manager, coach ... and I've always heard that, + we play the season + ... We always play the season, in each match, here it is. is like that. We know what to do, we had a good game in the first leg (1-0), we did not take a goal and we scored away. , it's up to us to give 100%. The important thing is to give everything, not to have any regrets ".

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Benzema, at the top of his career?

Benzema: "I don't know ... I'm always looking for more. I always take better care of myself, I always train harder. My age doesn't change that. Today, we see a lot of players playing in big clubs at a very high level up to 30, 34, even 39 years old. I'm prepared for that. And I will continue like this. What I love above all is top-level football, so I I have a lot of fun with this team. I enjoy every training day, every match day after day. I have a contract until 2022, but my door remains open: if the president wants to extend me, I'm here ".

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Benzema, permanent savior?

Benzema: "I have no savior costume. We are a team. I play in a position where I am the one who has to finish the actions. So good if I can help my team. The other attackers are also trying. their luck, it will come, we will score more, goals. If we watch our matches, we have a lot of chances. It's just that we have to find this luck factor to make them happen. has changed, the opponents look at us more, know us, know our movements, so each time you have to work on other things ... We play every three days, there is a lot of pressure ... So it's difficult, but we are still there, and we continue on our way ".

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