Initially treated as a doubt for the Club World Cup due to a back injury, striker Karim Benzema recovered and will play in the competition for Al-Ittihad.
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This is confirmed by the Frenchman’s personal coach, Javier Atalaya, who assured that the football star is 100% ready for the tournament.
“He’s doing very well, he’s strong. He’s been working more on his endurance because of the climate and the temperature in Saudi Arabia, but everything else has been the same”.
“From the recent work, he’s doing very well physically and this week has been very good” he commented Javier Atalaya, in an interview with the website “ge”.
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It is worth remembering that Benzema had felt the problem in his back in the match against Al-Khaleej, in the Saudi Championship, on November 30th.
At the time, the Frenchman had substituted in the 38th minute of the first half and, since then, he has not entered the field for Al-Ittihad.
However, the Frenchman returned to training with the squad last Tuesday (5) and has been working normally with the rest of the team. The tendency is for him to be on the field for the duel against Auckland City, from New Zealand, next Tuesday (12).
As a result, Benzema’s Al-Ittihad could be the opponent of Guardiola’s Manchester City in the Club World Cup final.
However, before this meeting can take place, the Saudi club needs to beat Auckland City on Tuesday and triumph over Al-Ahly, from Egypt, on Friday (15).
And then face the American champion, Brazilian team Fluminense in the semi-finals to face the popular Manchester City in a possible final.
