Eden Hazard is “ready” to finally make his La Liga debut for Real Madrid

Zinedine Zidane has revealed Eden Hazard is “ready” to finally make his La Liga debut for Real Madrid.

The 28-year-old Belgian winger moved to the Bernabeu from Chelsea this summer in a deal which could exceed £150m.

Why has Hazard not made his debut yet? Five things to know…

• Hazard finally completed his “dream” move to Real Madrid from Chelsea in the summer.
• But the Belgian is yet to feature in a competitive match for Los Blancos.
• A thigh strain ruled him out of Real Madrid’s first three league games.
• But Zidane says his star signing is now “ready” to face Levante at the weekend.
• Hazard completed more dribbles (138) than any Premier League player last season.

But Hazard picked up a thigh strain during pre-season training and has had to sit out Real’s first three games of the season.

During that time, Los Blancos have remained unbeaten, picking up five points against Celta Vigo, Valladolid and Villarreal so far.

Zidane’s men face Levante at home on Saturday and despite admitting he will be careful with easing Hazard into action, the Frenchman has confirmed his new star signing will be ready for that clash.

“We have to go little by little with him,” Zidane told reporters. “He’s been injured for three weeks. He’s back training this week.

“We all want to see him play. We’ve got seven games in 21 days. We have to go carefully with him.

“We know what the situation is – he’s ready and that’s the most important thing.

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“I’ll be the one in charge of giving him minutes here and there and not trying to push him too much, trying to get the best out of him.

“We’ve got a lot of matches coming up, not just this one tomorrow, and we need to use our heads with Eden Hazard. So let’s be calm. We’re all ready and so is he.”

Hazard in but Modric unfit for Levante clash

Although Hazard will finally pull on a Real Madrid shirt, Zidane will have to cope without midfielder Luka Modric after suffering a muscle injury in his right leg.

The 34-year-old played the full 90 minutes in two games for Croatia over the international break, but Zidane has refused to lay the blame on Modric’s nation for the problem.

“Everyone tries to do the best for the players,” he said.

“Luka played two games in four days [with Croatia]. That’s what happens. We can’t think too much about it, we just want Luka to get fit quickly to help us.

“The fact he’s injured now and can’t play tomorrow, we just have to accept it.”

Zidane added: “I think all the clubs have similar problems. The fact we’ve got a lot of international players as well makes things difficult.

“But we work well on the training field, we’ve got the best backroom staff, I trust them, so we just hope after the injury to Luka we don’t have any more.”