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The Spanish superpower have suffered a major injury blow to Dani Carvajal. The right-back has ruptured his ACL in a 2-0 win over Villarreal last weekend and is set for a long-term period on the sidelines. Manager Carlo Ancelotti said: “It looks like a pretty serious knee injury. In the next few hours he will undergo tests. The dressing room is worried and sad. Something has happened that hopefully won’t happen. It happens many times because of the calendar. Unfortunately, it has happened to a very important player for us.”

Madrid have already been heavily linked with a switch for Alexander-Arnold. The Liverpool vice-captain’s contract expires at the end of the season and fresh terms have still to be agreed. Although it’s suggested remaining at his boyhood club is his preference, an impasse has seemingly been hit.

Alexander-Arnold is free to sign a pre-contract overseas in January and there is still the potential he leaves Anfield on a free transfer. And with Madrid having Lucas Vazquez as their only recognised right-sided full-back, there have been suggestions that they could accelerate interest in Alexander-Arnold in the January transfer window.

Mundo Deportivo (via Sport Witness) reports that the England international is the Champions League and La Liga holders’ chief target for next summer but prising Alexander-Arnold to the Spanish capital midway through the season would be ‘complicated’. The 26-year-old, who celebrated his birthday yesterday, has started all seven Premier League games as Liverpool sit top of the table and Arne Slot’s side would not be prepared to lose him.

On his Liverpool future, Alexander-Arnold said last month: “I want to be a Liverpool player this season is what I will say. I have been at the club 20 years now, I have signed four or five contract extensions and none of those have been played out in public and this one won’t be either.

“The most important thing is always trophies if I am honest. I want to win trophies, I am a player who is highly motivated by trophies and winning things and being elite. So that is probably the main factor of anything, if you have a personality that is elite, who wants to win and will do anything to win then that is what drives me.”