CASILLAS SET TO LEAVE

There has been widespread speculation that Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas will leave the club at the end of the season after losing his first-team spot to Diego Lopez. The Spaniard lost his place when the club was under Jose Mourinho’s management.

He was expected to get back into the first team after the appointment of Carlo Ancelotti, but that has not happened. The Italian has been only using the goalkeeper in European matches. As result, he is in danger of losing his Spain national team place. Lopez has been used as the goalkeeper for league matches.

However, Ancelotti has hinted today that there might be a change in plans with Casillas being reintroduced for the league matches towards the end of the season. Over the last few months, the 32-year-old has been linked with several big names like Arsenal and Bayern Munich. He has not stated that he will demand a transfer. Casillas has featured in more than 600 matches for the Real Madrid team since making his debut more than a decade ago. He has won all major titles with the club, while he has also been hugely successful with the national team since 2008 as well.
Casillas has a contract with Real Madrid until the summer of 2017.

"I'm not ruling out fielding Iker in one or two league games. We will discuss that if we do make the Champions League final,” said Ancelotti ahead of Real Madrid’s match with Elche. Elche goalkeeper Manu Herrera, meanwhile, said that they are not afraid of facing the table leaders. "We have a great week ahead of us because we are playing Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, a stage everyone wants to compete on and we are very keen to perform well there. We go there with the hope of winning, of going there and competing and making things difficult for Real Madrid,” said Herrera.

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