{"id":19031,"date":"2026-05-08T03:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/19031\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T03:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T03:14:08","slug":"real-madrids-valverde-suffers-head-injury-in-altercation-with-tchouameni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/19031\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid’s Valverde suffers head injury in altercation with Tchouam\u00e9ni"},"content":{"rendered":"

MADRID (AP) \u2014 Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde suffered a head injury, the club said, in an altercation with teammate Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni on Thursday ahead of a weekend match against fierce rival Barcelona<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was the latest disruption to a Madrid squad that has endured a tough season that included lackluster results, a coaching change and fan criticism of stars<\/a> such as Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior, Jude Bellingham and Kylian Mbapp\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Madrid could see Barcelona celebrate the league title in Sunday\u2019s clasico at the Camp Nou. The Catalan club needs only a draw to win its second league title in a row.<\/p>\n

Madrid said in a statement<\/a> Thursday that \u201cfollowing the incidents that occurred this morning during the first team\u2019s training session, it has decided to open disciplinary proceedings against our players Federico Valverde and Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valverde downplayed the incident, saying on Instagram that no punches were thrown. He said he hurt his head after accidentally hitting a table during the encounter. Valverde said he sustained a small cut that required a short visit to the hospital.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Valverde\u2019s injury could keep him sidelined for the final four games of the domestic season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the tests carried out today on our player Fede Valverde by the Real Madrid Medical Services, he has been diagnosed with a cranioencephalic trauma,\u201d the club said in a separate injury update<\/a> on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cValverde is at home in good condition and will need to rest for 10 to 14 days, as indicated by medical protocols for this diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valverde is a key midfielder for Uruguay, which will play in Group H at the World Cup<\/a>. Uruguay\u2019s first game is against Saudi Arabia on June 15.<\/p>\n

Valverde apologized for the \u201cmeaningless fight\u201d with a teammate \u2014 he didn\u2019t name Tchouam\u00e9ni specifically \u2014 and said \u201ceverything has been blown out of proportion\u201d following a frustrating and lengthy season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a season without titles for Madrid, everything is magnified,\u201d Valverde wrote on Instagram. \u201cI feel that my anger and frustration at seeing some of us struggling to get through the end of the season, giving it our all, pushed me to the point of arguing with a teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m truly sorry because this situation hurts me, and this moment we are going through hurts me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team gave no timeline on the disciplinary proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club will provide updates on the resolutions of both proceedings once the corresponding internal procedures have been completed,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

There was no reported injury with Tchouam\u00e9ni, a 26-year-old France international who has not commented publicly.<\/p>\n

It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Defender \u00c1lvaro Carreras confirmed on Instagram that he was involved in \u201can incident with a colleague.\u201d He called it a \u201cminor\u201d and \u201cisolated\u201d matter that \u201chas already been resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spanish media said he and defender Antonio R\u00fcdiger got into a scuffle during one of the team\u2019s training sessions.<\/p>\n

Madrid is about to finish the season without winning any major title. It was eliminated by Bayern Munich in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, was ousted by second-division club Albacete in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey, and was runner-up to Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup.<\/p>\n

The team replaced Xabi Alonso in January in a rare mid-season coaching change<\/a> after he and some of the team\u2019s top players did not get along.<\/p>\n

Vin\u00edcius and other players, including Bellingham, were criticized by fans as the team struggled earlier in the season. They were both loudly jeered by the home crowd during some games at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Ken Maguire contributed from London.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde suffered a head injury, the club said, in an altercation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10354,4351,10353,223,640,10355,91,82,83,1743,396,3691],"class_list":{"0":"post-19031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-madrid","8":"tag-antonio-rdiger","9":"tag-athlete-injuries","10":"tag-aurlien-tchouamni","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-federico-valverde","13":"tag-head-injuries","14":"tag-jude-bellingham","15":"tag-madrid","16":"tag-real-madrid","17":"tag-soccer","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-uruguay"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}