Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 7y

Real Madrid's James Rodriguez doubtful for Colombia games

Real Madrid star James Rodriguez suffered a calf muscle strain ahead of the 1-1 La Liga draw at home to Eibar that is likely to rule him out of Colombia's upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Uruguay.

James was named in the Madrid starting XI for the game at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu but suffered a problem during the warmup and was replaced by Mateo Kovacic before the game began.

Later on Sunday, Madrid released a statement confirming that the club's doctors had found a calf muscle strain in his left leg.

"Following tests carried out today on James Rodriguez, he has been diagnosed with a grade 1 muscle strain in the soleus muscle of his left leg," the statement read.

Madrid, following their usual policy, did not say how long they expected the 25-year-old to be sidelined but he appears to have little prospect of featuring for his country against Paraguay on Oct. 6 or Uruguay on Oct. 11.

AS and Marca, though, both reported that he has flown to South America to be assessed by the Colombia doctors before any decision is made.

Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane will hope James makes a swift recovery as he is currently without injured midfielders Casemiro and Luka Modric, while both forward Karim Benzema and defender Raphael Varane picked up new knee problems and were substituted at half-time during the disappointing draw against Eibar.

The European champions' next La Liga game is at Real Betis on Saturday Oct. 15.

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