Diego Simeone has plenty of things on his mind going into the final few weeks of the La Liga season with just a four point gap to fifth place, but a bad Saturday night in Bilbao could give him quite the headache.
Los Colchoneros travel to Athletic Club on Saturday, with anything less than a win opening the door for Real Betis to make up ground on them. However as Mundo Deportivo note, Simeone’s team are at risk of suffering several key absences.
Five Atletico Madrid players are just one yellow card away from suspension. Mario Hermoso, Marcos Llorente, Sime Vrsaljko, Reinildo Mandava and Hector Herrera are at risk of suspension, meaning they could miss the derby against Real Madrid the following weekend.
Give the high stakes at play, it’s unlikely that Simeone will rotate on Saturday meaning he will have to place his trust in the composure of his players. Depending on how that goes, Atleti risk going into the derby with some serious holes in their defence.
Felipe should be available as will Stefan Savic and Renan Lodi. Jose Maria Gimenez remains injured and could return, but the risk is that Simeone is either left without a natural right-back option or forced to change to a defence of four to accommodate the absences.
