MADRID.- He real Madrid announced this Thursday the opening of disciplinary proceedings against two of its players, the Uruguayan Federico Valverde and the french Aurélien Tchouameniwho allegedly engaged in a violent altercation that sent the former to the hospital for a small bleeding wound.
“Real Madrid CF announces that, following the events that occurred this morning in the first team’s training session, it has decided to open disciplinary proceedings against our players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouameni,” the merengue club wrote in its text, without giving details about the nature of those events.
“The club will inform in due course of the resolutions of both files, once the corresponding internal procedures have been concluded,” he noted in his brief statement.
It was the first official demonstration of the merengue club after hours before it was known through press reports that Valverde had been taken to the hospital after a violent fight with Tchouameni.
The Uruguayan international was accompanied by the coach Alvaro Arbeloa to the hospital, located near the club’s facilities in Valdebebas, and needed stitches to contain a bleeding wound on his face, according to Spanish media.
Valverde, KO for the Classic
In a message on Instagram late in the day, Valverde spoke of “an incident” with Tchouameni due to “tiredness from the competition and frustration”, but denied that there was an exchange of blows between the two, or a physical fight.
“At no time has my teammate hit me and neither have I, although I understand that it is easier for you to believe that we have screwed up or it was intentional, but that did not happen,” wrote Valverde, who was declared absent for Sunday’s Clásico against the Barcelona for having to rest between 10 and 14 days, according to the protocol, due to a “craniocerebral trauma” diagnosed after the altercation.
“During the discussion I accidentally hit a table, making a small cut on my forehead that required a protocol visit to the hospital,” he wanted to clarify.
The two footballers had already been involved in a heated incident on Wednesday in training, facing each other without attacking each other, but the tension carried over to this Thursday, where it broke out after practice.
A very tense day
Hours before Valverde’s message, the Spanish sports newspaper Marca, which revealed what happened at first, pointed out that Valverde’s gap had occurred “involuntarily” and “not caused by a blow from Tchouameni.”
The story of the day in the Spanish press suggests that Valverde refused to shake Tchouameni’s hand before training, after what happened on Wednesday, and during the session there were violent tackles.
The Montevideo newspaper El País cited, for its part, sources close to the Uruguayan midfielder who stated that “Tchouameni went to look for Federico after training and not precisely to shake his hand as some people are saying.”
According to those sources consulted by the Uruguayan newspaper, “Little Bird’s” injury occurred as a result of a struggle and a blow with a table.
season to forget
This fight comes at a difficult time for Real Madrid, which is about to complete a second straight season without important titles.
Removed from the King’s Cup for him Albacete (2nd division) and European Champions League for him Bayern Munich In the quarterfinals, Real Madrid only has a slim chance of winning the Spanish League.
There, Real Madrid is second, but 11 points behind the leader Barcelona, with just four dates left until the end of the championship.
Barça will become league champions if they score points on Sunday in the Clásico against Real Madrid in the Camp Nou.
