Mourinho in crisis: Real Madrid lose three weapons against Inter Milan

Real Madrid host Inter Milan next Tuesday in the first round of the league phase of the Champions League.

Defensa Central report that Los Blancos boss Jose Mourinho will start the Inter Milan match with a midfield headache, thanks to three absentees.

Arda Guler, Bernardo Silva and Eduardo Camavinga are all suspended, having been sent off in their last European outing in the previous edition of the Champions League.

Mourinho now has to build a completely new midfield for Inter Milan at the Santiago Bernabeu. Three of his four key midfielders saw red in that final Champions League match last season.

Camavinga and Arda Guler were dismissed against Bayern Munich in the second leg of the quarter-final. Bernardo Silva got his marching orders against Real Madrid in the second leg of the round of 16.

Right now, the most likely fix looks like a rush to get Aurelien Tchouameni back, with the Frenchman partnering Fede Valverde in the middle.

The plan is to hand Tchouameni some minutes against Real Betis in LaLiga first, though nothing has been confirmed.

Injury has kept Tchouameni out of every game so far this season. He came back from holiday carrying a few knocks that left him short of his team-mates physically.

Thiago Pitarch is sidelined too. That leaves Mourinho scrambling to piece together a competitive midfield from thin resources, in one of the trickiest matches of the league phase.