Raúl Asencio sidelined with gastroenteritis - Real Madrid’s backline depth crumbles before Girona

Raúl Asencio, the 18-year-old center back Real Madrid had been rushing toward first-team cover, has been ruled out of training with gastroenteritis right before the Girona clash. For a squad already scraping the barrel at the back, this is the worst timing possible. Illness drains energy, ruins rhythm, and usually lingers beyond the fever. Rival coaches will smell blood, and Girona’s front line will fancy every aerial duel and second ball. Madrid gambled on kids instead of signing a senior defender in the summer. Now they are paying for it, and there is no quick escape route.

The setback unfolded at Valdebebas during the final preparations for Real Madrid’s meeting with Girona. The timing compounds a months-long pattern of defensive strain that began last season and never truly eased. With senior options stretched, Madrid elevated teenagers to first-team training and matchday readiness. Asencio’s gastroenteritis removes another body from an already thin group on the eve of a high-tempo opponent. Such squad illnesses often emerge in tight dressing room environments and can cascade through a group within days if protocols fail. The staff must now juggle selection, recovery windows, and containment just to field balance.

🚨 JUST IN: Raúl Asencio has gastroenteritis. He's not training. @AlbertoPereiro

@MadridXtra

Impact Analysis

This is not a simple day-to-day knock. Gastroenteritis slashes a player’s output and can take 7-10 days for full symptom resolution, followed by another week to recover match conditioning. For an 18-year-old being tossed into senior intensity, that second phase is brutal. Expect Madrid to overcompensate positionally, dropping a pivot into the back line and asking fullbacks to tuck inside. The problem is structural: when your emergency plan depends on teenagers and midfielders moonlighting as center backs, every duel is a fire drill.

Girona attack with vertical runs and quick switches. They drag center backs wide, then hammer the half spaces with late box entries. If Madrid push their line high to compress midfield, balls in behind will expose slow rotations. If they sit deep, Girona’s cutbacks and edge-of-box shots pile up. Without a natural pairing that communicates on autopilot, set pieces become a gift. Madrid used Aurélien Tchouameni as an auxiliary center back last season, but that robs the midfield of its best screen and weakens first contact in transitions. It is lose-lose football.

Zoom out and it is a recruitment indictment. A club of this scale should not be relying on a teenager to patch a Champions League-level squad in February. Legends like Sergio Ramos built eras on reliability, voice, and timing. Right now Madrid have silence in the middle and a revolving door of stopgaps. Asencio’s absence is a symptom of a bigger miscalculation, and the schedule will not wait.

Reaction

Social channels lit up with a familiar mix of gallows humor and exasperation from Madrid fans. The recurring theme: how does a team this big end up here again. Some mocked the food situation at the training base, demanding the chef be sacked, while others begged for an epidemiology audit at the facility. There is real fear that a stomach bug will run through the squad and wipe out the backline depth altogether. A few pointed out the last Girona meeting without natural center backs and the chaos that followed.

Another thread is annoyance at squad planning. Supporters hammered the summer window for failing to add a senior center back, arguing kids are being burned before they mature. A chunk of the fanbase already talks about sacrificing Europe to protect the league charge, a defeatist tone that rarely surfaces at this club. The sarcasm bites: if the defense capitulates again, nobody should act surprised. Even neutral observers are asking how many more alarms the decision makers need before they act like serial winners again.

Strip away the jokes and the message is blunt: the trust reservoir is empty. Fans respect the badge and the legends who built its aura, but current choices are eroding that authority week by week.

Social reactions

Out in Classic Real Madrid fashion

Aman (@tombstonecold7)

how come he's not training?

Ali Raza (@AliDarwesh94)

every year we lose all of our defenders come mid season…

Milla Millyonz (@millamillyonz)

Prediction

Short term, expect Real Madrid to reshuffle with a hybrid back three in possession, fullbacks pinching in to protect the channels, and Tchouameni dropping when pressed. Girona will target early deliveries and cutbacks, forcing emergency blocks and cards. If a second player shows symptoms, the house of cards collapses and forces academy promotions for the bench just to meet list requirements.

Medium term, Madrid will overstate optimism on recovery timelines, but this illness will linger in performance metrics. Sprint repeatability and aerial timing dip first. Asencio will need a cautious ramp - 2 to 3 weeks before real match robustness returns, not the optimistic 5-7 days the club will sell. Expect tight-minute management and late cameos rather than starts.

Big picture, this triggers a late-window or early-summer correction. Madrid will chase a plug-and-play, duel-winning center back who can anchor a high line and organize set pieces. The market knows they are desperate, so fees climb. Until then, the pattern remains: improvised partnerships, reactive defending, and reliance on individual brilliance from the keeper to bail them out. Girona will sense it and press the wound.

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Conclusion

One absence should not sink an institution that worships standards set by legends, but Madrid have engineered a situation where every minor illness becomes a tactical earthquake. Asencio’s gastroenteritis is the latest proof. Reliability down the spine used to be non-negotiable - think Ramos reading the flight of the ball, barking the line up five meters, and winning time with his body, not just his feet. Today’s version is a patchwork that asks midfielders to be defenders and teenagers to learn leadership on the job.

As a rival observer, it is impossible not to call this what it is: preventable. The return timeline will drag, not because the kid lacks courage, but because the load is absurd. When he does come back, any dip will be framed as inexperience, when in truth it is mismanagement. The badge demands better, yet the plan leans on hope. Girona will test the seams, Europe will magnify them, and the board will finally pay the premium it dodged. For now, Madrid fans can only brace for another long night in the channels.