Lucas Vázquez has played his last game of the season for Real Madrid. The midfielder dropped out on Saturday evening in the game against Barcelona (2-1 win) with a knee injury and after an initial investigation it appears to have suffered damage to his posterior cruciate ligament. The duel with Barcelona may even mean his last in the shirt of Real for Vázquez, as his contract expires next summer and the contract has still not been extended by both parties.
It went wrong for Vázquez and Real before half time. The right foot was unable to continue after a collision with Sergio Busquets, where the knees went against each other and had to be replaced by Álvaro Odriozola. Just before that, he had provided Karim Benzema with a flawless assist. After an excellent ball from Federico Valverde, Vázquez passed low from the right towards the first post, where Benzema was faster than Ronald Araújo and the ball artfully worked with the heel behind Marc-André ter Stegen for the 1-0.
Vázquez endured after the win Clásico an MRI scan, which showed that the midfielder suffered a sprain on his right knee. The failure of Vázquez is another downer for trainer Zinedine Zidane in the run-up to the return in the Champions League against Liverpool, as the coach probably also does not have Valverde available. He was taken to the side after an hour of play and replaced by Marco Asensio. Real will defend a 3-1 lead against Liverpool on Wednesday in the hunt for a place in the semi-final.
There is a chance that Vázquez, who is likely to be sidelined for eight weeks with his knee injury, also immediately played his last game for Real. The midfielder has an expiring contract at Real. The Royal would like to extend that commitment and the 29-year-old winger, who also regularly plays as a right back this season, has made an offer to sign for three years, but Cadena SER previously reported that Vázquez has sent this offer to the trash for two reasons.
Vázquez was trained by Real Madrid and left for Espanyol in 2014, which was able to take him over permanently after a rental period. However, the current leader of LaLiga had a buyback option and immediately activated it to bring him back to the Spanish capital. Vázquez has provisionally played 229 games for Real Madrid, scoring 26 times and delivering 49 assists. This season he made 23 appearances, including 21 as a base player.