A single exception with Mourinho: Real Madrid bid farewell to a nightmare that haunted them for years

After long seasons in which Real Madrid lived to the rhythm of the treatment room more than they lived on the pitch, and after muscle injuries had become the number one enemy devouring the team's dreams and forcing them to call on academy players to plug the gaps, José Mourinho arrived to put an end to this bleeding.

The Portuguese coach has engineered one of the royal club's biggest shifts in recent years. He has rebuilt a side that is far more physically cohesive, to the point where a muscular injury has become a rare event at Valdebebas, where it once felt like a daily occurrence.

When Mourinho returned to the Santiago Bernabeu, his job was not simply to win titles. First he had to solve a chronic problem that had worn the team down over recent seasons. More than once, Real Madrid were forced to call up youth academy players despite carrying a squad of close to 25, purely because recurring injuries had left them short of bodies.

Fixing the players' fitness and avoiding another season wrecked by injuries sat at the very top of his list of priorities. So far he has delivered in striking fashion, with figures that confirm the change is no fluke, according to Spanish newspaper "AS."

Leave aside the players who were already carrying physical problems before the season began, and only one man has missed a match this term through a muscular injury: Fede Valverde, struck down after the Clasico at the Camp Nou. Nobody else has suffered a muscular injury since. The club has not seen anything like it in years.

Rodrygo, Thiago, Militao, Mendy and Asensio have all struggled for minutes, but every one of them started the season already injured. Most were dealing with long-term problems. Thiago and Militao, meanwhile, have begun easing back into training without any fresh setbacks.

Consider where Real Madrid stood at this exact point last season. First-team players had already missed 39 matches through injury, and that excludes anyone carrying a problem from the previous campaign or picked up during the summer window. Add those in and the figure climbs to 62 matches lost, a catastrophic number by any measure.

Rudiger, Alaba, Huijsen, Trent, Carvajal, Tchouameni, Ceballos and Mastantuono all suffered muscular problems during the opening months of last season. Real Madrid's current situation could hardly be more different.

Credit for the turnaround belongs to the working methods of Mourinho and his staff, built on precise management of each player's minutes and training load. No overloading, no neglect of readiness.

That approach has the players showing sharper physical condition than in previous seasons. It keeps a fresh wave of injuries at bay, lets Mourinho field almost his entire squad every week, and hands each man the right role at the right moment.

Titles were the reason Mourinho came back to Real Madrid. To win them, though, he first had to construct a more physically cohesive team, the very thing that had plagued the club in previous seasons.

The first job looks done. Nobody can promise the squad will stay injury-free until May, but the rate of absences has fallen sharply since Mourinho walked back into the Santiago Bernabeu.

While everyone else debated tactics and team sheets, Mourinho was fighting his real battle in the gym and the treatment room. The message is clear: titles are not built on skill alone, but on physical readiness first.