There is no rush. Karim Benzema did not attend the call of his national team for the Nations League commitments to stay to strengthen his right knee with a special differentiated plan. The 34-year-old striker is suffering from bursitis and has already missed four games.

Benzema does not have a date to return to the courts. In fact, he continues with a differentiated work plan supervised by the club’s physical department. The two weeks of the national team break are like a kind of mini-preseason with the aim of recovering 100% and thus avoiding a relapse less than three months before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The French attacker could have played undercover in the derby against Atlético de Madrid (1-2 with goals from Rodrygo and Valverde) but the club preferred not to risk it. Ancelotti found in Rodrygo the ideal substitute as a false nine and the Brazilian responded with three goals and two assists in seven games.

Without Benzema, the club thrashed Celtic Glasgow 0-3 and RCD Mallorca 4-1 and also beat RB Leipzig 2-0 and Atlético de Madrid 1-2. In total there have been 11 goals in favor without the top scorer and candidate for the Ballon d’Or.

There is no rush, and the selection break came like a glove and is used as a kind of mini preseason. The plan is to strengthen the knee after suffering bursitis (fluid that causes inflammation and pain in the joint) and to reach the top of its conditions in the last five weeks before the World Cup.

On the agenda there are eight LaLiga and four Champions League commitments. The classic against FC Barcelona on October 16 at the Santiago Bernabéu is marked with an asterisk on the calendar, but before that they will play with Osasuna and Getafe and twice with Shakhtar