Tchouameni can play Clasico despite Valverde clash: Real coach Arbeloa

Real Madrid coach Alvaro Arbeloa said Aurelien Tchouameni will be in his team’s squad to face Barcelona on Sunday in La Liga, despite his confrontation with team-mate Fede Valverde.

The Uruguay captain was treated in hospital for a head injury and will miss up to a fortnight while he recovers, after the two players argued at the end of training on Thursday.

Real Madrid fined France international Tchouameni and Valverde on Friday and said both midfielders had apologised to each other and the club, fans, staff and team-mates.

If Real Madrid fail to beat Barcelona, the Catalans will be crowned Spanish champions for a second consecutive season.

“Tomorrow Tchouameni will be in the squad,” Arbeloa told reporters, when asked about the Frenchman’s availability for the Clasico at Camp Nou.

Arbeloa, who replaced Xabi Alonso in January of a troubled season for Madrid, said he had accepted both players’ apologies for the incident. “I’m very proud of the club’s decisiveness, speed, and transparency, and that the players have acknowledged their mistake, expressed their regret, accepted the consequences of what they have done, and asked for forgiveness,” said Arbeloa.

“For me, that’s enough. What I’m not going to do is burn them at the stake in public, because they don’t deserve that... because of what they’ve shown me over these four months and over these years.

“They’ve shown they understand what it means to be a Real Madrid player, their commitment, their effort, their love for the shirt, and I’m not going to forget that.”

Arbeloa said what was more troubling to him was that somebody would leak the details of the row to the media.

“That things are leaked that happened in the dressing room, to me is a betrayal of Real Madrid and the club badge,” said the coach.

Arbeloa was at Liverpool in 2007 when Welsh striker Craig Bellamy hit team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club. A few days later Bellamy celebrated scoring against Barcelona at Camp Nou in the Champions League with a golf swing celebration.

“I had a team-mate who smacked another one with a golf club,” remembered Arbeloa.

“For me, the thing that hurts me the most is that what happens in the Real dressing room should stay in the Real dressing room.

“Situations that don’t represent Real, or any club, situations that shouldn’t happen between team-mates, have always happened, everywhere, but I’m not justifying it.”

Agence France-Presse