{"id":555016,"date":"2026-03-21T13:31:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:31:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/555016\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T13:31:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T13:31:07","slug":"jude-bellingham-available-for-real-madrid-to-face-atletico-madrid-alvaro-arbeloa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/555016\/","title":{"rendered":"Jude Bellingham available for Real Madrid to face Atl\u00e9tico Madrid – \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid<\/a> coach \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa has said Jude Bellingham<\/a> is fit and available for the team’s derby clash with Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> on Sunday, adding that he has no issues with the midfielder’s early call-up for England<\/a> duty.<\/p>\n

Bellingham has been named by Thomas Tuchel in England’s squad to play Uruguay<\/a> and Japan<\/a>, despite the fact that his last minutes for Madrid came on Feb. 1, when he suffered a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

The star travelled with Madrid’s squad in midweek for their Champions League round of 16 win over Manchester City<\/a> but played no part in the game, and — speaking in a news conference on Saturday — Arbeloa confirmed that Bellingham is now ready to feature in LaLiga.<\/p>\n

Jude Bellingham is available to return for Real Madrid.\u00a0Photo by Jean Catuffe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

“He’s available, and he’ll be in the squad tomorrow,” Arbeloa said. “We’ll see if he plays. I think so. I’m looking forward to seeing him on the pitch. He’s an intelligent player, and he knows what to do in every moment. I’m happy he’ll be available and ready to help us tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

Arbeloa said forward Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> was now “100%” after making his return from a knee sprain as a substitute against City, and insisted he was happy for both stars to go away with their national teams this month.<\/p>\n

“I said that the day [Mbapp\u00e9] came back he’d be at 100%,” Arbeloa said. “We saw that in Manchester, with the runs he made. He showed that he’s fine. I have absolute confidence… He’s at 100%.”<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 is among France<\/a> coach Didier Deschamps’ players to play Brazil<\/a> and Colombia<\/a> during the international break.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s great,” Arbeloa said, when asked if he thought that might be premature. “He’s available, and he’s played minutes for us. So there’s no problem with him going away with his country… With players like Bellingham and Mbapp\u00e9, you can’t expect them not to be called up by their national teams. The World Cup is in a few months. I understand the situation perfectly.”<\/p>\n

– Jude Bellingham return to England will be managed carefully – Thomas Tuchel
–<\/a> LaLiga Confidential: Spain’s soccer stars take ESPN’s player survey
–<\/a> Transfer rumors, news: Man United move for Newcastle’s Guimar\u00e3es<\/a><\/p>\n

Madrid suffered a heavy 5-2 defeat to Atl\u00e9tico when the sides met earlier in the LaLiga season, but the team’s form has improved in recent weeks under Arbeloa — although the coach admitted he’d need to tweak his tactics to accommodate Mbapp\u00e9 and Bellingham.<\/p>\n

“We’ll make some adjustments,” the coach said. “Of course it’s not the same playing with Brahim [Diaz] as with Mbapp\u00e9, or with Jude or Thiago [Pitarch]… But they’ve been elite players for a long time, and they know what it means to work for the team.”<\/p>\n

Arbeloa said there was “no timeline” for a return for Thibaut Courtois<\/a>, who suffered a muscular injury against City, and praised defender Antonio R\u00fcdiger<\/a>, whose contract is due to expire this summer.<\/p>\n

“I don’t like to get into those things,” Arbeloa said, when asked about a new deal for the veteran defender. “I respect the club and the player, and they have to reach an understanding. But I would make a statue of Rudiger and put it in my garden… I have only great things to say about him.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid coach \u00c1lvaro Arbeloa has said Jude Bellingham is fit and available for the team’s derby clash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-555016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}