Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane outlines plan for Eden Hazard following his return from muscle injury
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has explained how he will utilize Eden Hazard following the winger's return from a muscle injury.
The Frenchman stated that Hazard is likely to remain rusty after a spell of injuries that encapsulated a dire first season at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Due to this, Zidane feels it is important to gradually infuse Hazard back into the mix.
The Belgium skipper returned to the line-up as a 70th-minute substitute during Real Madrid's underwhelming 2-2 Champions League draw versus Borussia Monchengladbach, marking his first appearance of the season.
'Plan is to gradually try and get him playing,' says Real Madrid manager Zidane
After seven glorious years at Chelsea where he established himself as arguably the best player in the Premier League, Hazard decided to complete his dream move to Real Madrid for a whopping €100 million excluding add-ons.
However, a flurry of injuries halted his progress in the Spanish top flight. Hazard only finished with a solitary goal across 23 appearances for Real Madrid last season.
A muscle tear at the back-end of last term once again sidelined him but the 29-year-old is finally ready to restart.
Real Madrid salvaged a point against Monchengladbach courtesy of goals from Karim Benzema and Casemiro. The game finished 2-2, with Hazard's return one of the positives to take from what was an otherwise substandard display.
Discussing his comeback, Real Madrid's Zidane said:
"It was his first game after a long time out. That was the plan to gradually try and get him playing and that's what we've got to do with Eden. He needs to be involved gradually and that's all there is to it."
He continued:
"How we're going to do that will depend on the games. Given that we're playing every three days we'll have to see how we're going to do it."
Zidane was proud of his team for coming back from two goals down as he also reflected on the result. The Real Madrid manager added:
"It's a deserved result but we could have won it because we do all we can do win games but there was a team up the other end who made it difficult for us. We didn't panic, we kept opening the pitch up and we showed real character to come back."
Real Madrid will hope to return to winning ways when they take on SD Huesca on October 31 at the Bernabeu. Should they put the game to bed early on, we could see Hazard featuring once again off the bench.
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