{"id":1868,"date":"2026-07-14T13:24:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:24:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/?p=1868"},"modified":"2026-07-14T13:24:26","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:24:26","slug":"mourinhos-second-real-madrid-reign-begins-with-threadbare-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/mourinhos-second-real-madrid-reign-begins-with-threadbare-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"Mourinho&#8217;s second Real Madrid reign begins with threadbare squad"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"562\" src=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-13.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1869\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-13.png 1000w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-13-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/mktynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/image-13-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Jose Mourinho has officially launched his second stint at the Real Madrid helm, though the Portuguese tactician began pre-season with a squad decimated by World Cup absences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Real Madrid got their pre-season preparations underway on Monday with a skeleton crew, as Jose Mourinho oversaw an opening training session featuring just eight first-team players. The diminished group reported for medical examinations, joined by sidelined stars Eder Militao, Rodrygo Goes, and Ferland Mendy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ongoing World Cup across the United States, Mexico, and Canada has heavily disrupted the Portuguese coach&#8217;s start. Thirteen years after the conclusion of his first tenure at the club (2010-2013), he returns to find the vast majority of his squad still away on international duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mourinho\u2019s initial cohort consisted of Dean Huijsen, Alexander-Arnold, Eduardo Camavinga, Alvaro Carreras, Andriy Lunin, Gonzalo Garcia, Franco Mastantuono, and Raul Asencio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While Militao, Rodrygo, and Mendy were present at Ciudad Real Madrid for routine check-ups, the trio will continue their respective rehabilitation programmes away from the main group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The manager is expected to welcome back his stars in staggered waves over the coming days. The first reinforcements will be those whose nations have already been eliminated from the tournament: Bernardo Silva (Portugal), Fede Valverde (Uruguay), Arda Guler (Turkey), Thibaut Courtois (Belgium), Antonio Rudiger (Germany), Brahim Diaz (Morocco), Denzel Dumfries (Netherlands), and Vinicius Jr (Brazil).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those still involved in this week&#8217;s semi-finals are set for a later return, including Jude Bellingham (England), Aurelien Tchouameni, Kylian Mbappe, Ibrahima Konate (France), and Marc Cucurella (Spain).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Following their medicals, the eight available players completed their first training session of the new Mourinho era. The Portuguese boss is tasked with steering Real Madrid back to silverware after two trophy-less campaigns under Carlo Ancelotti, Xabi Alonso, and Alvaro Arbeloa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The club has lined up two friendlies to sharpen the squad: a clash with Fiorentina on 1 August at the Worthersee Stadion in Klagenfurt, followed by a trip to face Deportivo de La Coruna on 12 August at Riazor for the 71st Teresa Herrera Trophy. These fixtures will prove vital as the manager looks to fine-tune his side ahead of the 2026-2027 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jose Mourinho has officially launched his second stint at the Real Madrid helm, though the Portuguese tactician began<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1868"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1870,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1868\/revisions\/1870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mktynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}