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No Pepe, no Varane - Real Madrid’s April run-in suddenly looks scary

Zinedine Zidane's side are now down to the bare bones in defence and cannot afford any more injuries with Bayern Munich and Barcelona in wait

Bad timing for Real Madrid and Zinedine Zidane. Just when it looked like Los Blancos would reach the business end of the season without any players on the treatment table, both Raphael Varane and Pepe have picked up injuries to leave the European champions desperately short in defence.

Varane returned from a spell on the sidelines to start against Alaves last weekend, but the France centre-back lasted just 10 minutes before limping off again and now seems set to miss at least a month of action.