James Rodriguez is not in the Real Madrid squad for Wednesday night's crucial La Liga game at Celta Vigo, although Cristiano Ronaldo returns, as coach Zinedine Zidane ends his rotation policy with the title race almost over.
Rodriguez, who signed for Real from Monaco for €80 million in 2014, has been heavily linked with a summer move to Manchester United in recent days, with coach Zinedine Zidane ignoring talk over his future at Tuesday's news conference, while saying that the Colombia international, 25, had picked up a knock to his foot during Sunday's 4-1 La Liga win at home to Sevilla.
Ronaldo was rested for four of Madrid's last five away games in La Liga but the Portugal international has been called up for the fixture which is being played now after being postponed due to bad weather in Galicia in early February.
Los Blancos need four points from Wednesday's game at Celta and their weekend trip to Malaga to be crowned champions regardless of what Barcelona do in their final game at home to Eibar on Sunday evening.
Versatile defender Nacho is free to play at Balaidos after Madrid successfully appealed a booking picked up against Sevilla last weekend that would have ruled him out with an automatic one-match ban. La Liga's appeals committee accepted Madrid's argument that Nacho had been unfairly booked after an incident involving Sevilla's Joaquin Correa and the yellow has been rescinded.
? #RealMadrid 2⃣0⃣ ? @RCCelta #RMMovisar #RMLiga #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/hNyDvxg3ZF
- Real Madrid C. F. (@realmadrid) May 17, 2017
"Zinedine Zidane has called up 20 players for the game, put back from the 21st La Liga gameweek, in which Los Blancos today take on Celta Vigo at Balaidos," the club statement said.
Still unavailable for the trip to Balaidos are winger Gareth Bale (calf) and right-back Dani Carvajal (hamstring), while centre-back Pepe has not yet recovered sufficiently from a rib injury.
Squad list:
Goalkeepers: Navas, Casilla, Yanez.
Defenders: Varane, Ramos, Nacho, Marcelo, Coentrao, Danilo.
Midfielders: Kroos, Casemiro, Kovacic, Modric, Asensio, Isco.
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Lucas Vázquez, Mariano, Morata.