Real Madrid are expected to be without the services of veteran right-back Dani Carvajal against Villarreal as the 30-year-old did not train on Wednesday with the rest of the squad, reports AS.

Real Madrid will take a trip to Estadio de la Ceramica on Saturday to face Villarreal and Carlo Ancelotti is expected to have most of his players available for selection after the Italian deliberately decided to rest several first-team members against Cacereno in Copa del Rey.

For Carvajal, the right-back was forced to miss the cup tie through injury and while Ancelotti was optimistic about his return for Saturday’s fixture, it seems the Spaniard is certain to miss out for the second time this year as he did not train with the team during their recovery work.

Madrid began training for the upcoming league game as soon as the squad returned from the 1-0 win over Cacereno. On Wednesday, the training regime was divided into different group sessions. 

The recovery work was performed by the players who were a part of the travelling squad while more intense work was done by those who played little or did not participate altogether.

In that context, the likes of David Alaba, Ferland Mendy, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior trained in the latter category in an afternoon session.

One positive thing that came out of it was the return of Thibaut Courtois. The Belgian stopper, who missed the mid-week action through muscular discomfort, trained normally along with the other keepers, meaning that he is likely to return to the first team on Saturday.

On the other hand, Carvajal was out of the group and together with Mariano Diaz, who is recovering from an ankle sprain, exercised inside the facility.

For now, AS reports that despite the evident difficulties, Ancelloti might as well test the right-back with the group in the next training sessions ahead of the Villarreal game.