Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says he is not worried about mounting injury problems ahead of upcoming games at Las Palmas in La Liga and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
It has been confirmed that midfielder Casemiro is out for some weeks with a broken bone in his leg, while left-back Marcelo has a calf muscle strain and centre-back Pepe is still sidelined with a knee knock picked up against Espanyol last weekend.
The run of fitness issues comes amid a spell of seven games in 22 days for Madrid, and also as Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale ease their way back into the team after both were unable to complete a full preseason following Euro 2016.
"We always have injuries to deal with," Zidane told a news conference. "We do not want it to happen, but this forms part of football, it happens in all squads.
"It does not worry me. The injuries hurt the player, and the team, but I have players who can replace them very well. There will be moments in the season which are a bit more difficult, with more injuries, and we must be ready to take decisions and manage this."
The losses of Casemiro and Marcelo are particularly troublesome for Zidane, as his 24-man senior squad does not contain an obvious like-for-like replacement for either player.
"I never like when someone is injured," Zidane said. "Even more when they are starting players -- like Casemiro and Marcelo. But we cannot do anything about that now. We just hope they are back as quickly as possible with us.
"We have a very deep squad, and we can make changes. We do not have another player who is like 'Case.' But we will do something different, it is not a problem."
Seven games into the new season, Sergio Ramos is Madrid's top scorer with three goals, ahead of Ronaldo (two), Bale (two) and Benzema (one) after their limited playing time.
Zidane defended the performances so far this season of his "BBC" strike force, who all missed chances during Wednesday's 1-1 La Liga draw at home to Villarreal.
"I see the 'BBC' very well, every day they are better," he said. "It is true that we expect a lot of them, we make high demands on them. But they know it is like that. They could do better, of course, they always can. But I am happy with what they are doing.
"In the last game I could not be happy in the first half, but with everyone, not just two or three players. I will never single out one player [in public] -- that will not happen. If I need to I will do it personally."
Madrid will welcome back Keylor Navas to the matchday squad for the first time since a heel operation in June, but Zidane said that did not necessarily mean Kiko Casilla would immediately drop to the bench for all games.
"Keylor will be in the squad, he is with us," Zidane said. "We know how important Keylor is for us, but so is Kiko, and [third-choice] Ruben [Yanez].
"Keylor is a fundamental player for us, same as Kiko, who is doing very well. I will talk to the two of them about how we will organise things. For me you can rotate the goalkeepers in the exact same way as with outfield players."