7.5.2026
Real Madrid’s preparations for Sunday’s El Clasico against Barcelona have been derailed by a clash between midfielders Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni on Thursday.
Both players had to be pulled apart by their teammates during training as they engaged in a fisticuffs that sent Valverde to the hospital to have his head stitched.
According to reports in Spain both players on Wednesday had a violent altercation, which was settled. But on Thursday, Valverde refused to shake Tchouameni’s hand, rather accusing him of leaking the argument on Wednesday to the press.
Tchouameni denied having any links with the press, but Valverde will have none of his explanations, he kept on insisting even during the training session that Tchouamenoi leaked the matter to the press and that led to the fight on Thursday.
Despite some teammates coming over to try and get Valverde to back off, he continued to harass the Frenchman and he responded with a punch that knocked Valverde to the ground. While going down he hit his head on a table, and a deep cut was opened.
Real Madrid general manager Jose Angel Sanchez held and emergency meeting in the training ground and it is likely both players would be sanctioned and may also miss Sunday’s match.