PA Media/DPA
London
Kylian Mbappe will make his Bernabeu debut for Real Madrid against Valladolid but Jude Bellingham is ruled out of Sunday’s La Liga clash.
Bellingham started the 1-1 draw with Mallorca that launched Real’s title defence but the England midfielder then suffered an injury to his right calf in training and is expected to be sidelined for around a month.
Mbappe is available, however, and will make his first home appearance since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain during the summer.
"It’s going to be a great day for Mbappé to play at the Bernabeu for the first time in a Madrid shirt,” head coach Carlo Ancelotti said.
"The fans are very excited about him. Given the quality he has, he’s going to play very well and the fans are going to enjoy it.”
Ancelotti played down the suggestion that Rodrygo was unsettled at the club after the Brazil forward appeared to complain about his role within Real’s attacking line-up in a now-deleted social media post.
Amid media focus on the trio of Bellingham, Mbappe and Vinicius Jr - dubbed "BMV” - the post published by his management pointed out that Rodrygo also has an important role to play.
"There’s no Rodrygo issue for me. I spoke to him and asked him if anything had happened. It was false, he’s very happy here and he’s working really well,” Ancelotti said.
"He’s been one of the best players in recent games and there’s no problem with him. He’s very happy and content because he’s playing.
"We all know what qualities he has. In our two games, he’s done really well. He scored against Mallorca and contributed plenty against Atalanta.
"When we have an attacking team, the forwards have to work a bit more and he’s doing a great job.” France defender Ferland Mendy will miss the Valladolid clash after being sent off in the closing seconds of the draw at Estadi Mallorca Son Moix last Sunday.
Real took an early lead through Rodyrgo only to see Vedat Muriqi equalise shortly after the interval and Ancelotti insisted the shortcomings of the performance had been identified.
"We’ve worked on what didn’t go well in the game against Mallorca. We have fully understood what happened and we’ve tried to fix it,” he said.
"We lacked balance at times and we have to work on this. It’s not difficult to find the problem and, when it’s clear, it helps to find the solution. It will be a good test against Valladolid.”