MADRID, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Real Madrid's Belgian international forward Eden Hazard is likely to miss the 'Clasico' against FC Barcelona and may not play again until the start of 2020 after he was diagnosed with a fissure on his right ankle.
Hazard suffered the injury on November 26 playing in the Champions League against Paris Saint Germain and the club's initial diagnosis was that the player had merely suffered a twist resulting from a heavy challenge and would only be sidelined for around 10 days.
However, the alarm bells sounded on Wednesday night when he turned up on crutches for the Real Madrid players' traditional Christmas meal and on Thursday the club published a new communique advising that the injury was considerably more serious than first thought.
Real Madrid are scheduled to play FC Barcelona in the Camp Nou stadium on December 18 in arguably their most important game so far this season and it now looks very unlikely that Hazard will recover in time and he could also miss the rest of December.
The club will not take risks with Hazard who suffered a broken right ankle while training with Belgium in 2017 and had a titanium plate inserted to resolve the problem.
