MADRID — Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa said Aurelien Tchouameni will be in his team’s squad to face Barcelona on Sunday in La Liga, despite his confrontation with teammate Fede Valverde.
The Uruguay captain was treated in hospital for a head injury and will miss up to a fortnight while he recovers, after the two players argued at the end of training on Thursday.
Real Madrid fined France international Tchouameni and Valverde on Friday and said both midfielders had apologised to each other and the club, fans, staff and teammates.
If Real Madrid fail to beat Barcelona, the Catalans will be crowned Spanish champions for a second consecutive season.
“Tchouameni will be in the squad,” Arbeloa said according to AFP, when asked about the Frenchman’s availability for the Clasico at Camp Nou.
Arbeloa, who replaced Xabi Alonso in January of a troubled season for Madrid, said he had accepted both players’ apologies for the incident.
“I’m very proud of the club’s decisiveness, speed, and transparency, and that the players have acknowledged their mistake, expressed their regret, accepted the consequences of what they have done, and asked for forgiveness,” said Arbeloa.
“For me, that’s enough. What I’m not going to do is burn them at the stake in public, because they don’t deserve that… because of what they’ve shown me over these four months and over these years.
“They’ve shown they understand what it means to be a Real Madrid player, their commitment, their effort, their love for the shirt, and I’m not going to forget that.”
Arbeloa said what was more troubling to him was that somebody would leak the details of the row to the media.
“That things are leaked that happened in the dressing room, to me is a betrayal of Real Madrid and the club badge,” said the coach.
Arbeloa was at Liverpool in 2007 when Welsh striker Craig Bellamy hit teammate John Arne Riise with a golf club.
A few days later Bellamy celebrated scoring against Barcelona at Camp Nou in the Champions League with a golf swing celebration.
“I had a teammate who smacked another one with a golf club,” remembered Arbeloa.
“For me, the thing that hurts me the most is that what happens in the Real Madrid dressing room should stay in the Real Madrid dressing room.
“Situations that don’t represent Real Madrid, or any club, situations that shouldn’t happen between teammates, have always happened, everywhere, but I’m not justifying it.”
