Marca: Due to Real Madrid's midfield injury problems, Cesteros could start against Inter

According to Marca's latest report, with many midfield injuries, Cesteros or Sergio Martinez have become Mourinho's starting options against Inter Milan.

It is reported that in this week's Champions League opening match against Inter, either Cesteros or Sergio Martinez could become a major surprise starter for Real Madrid. The first major reason is that Mourinho has too few available midfielders, with Valverde the only fully fit natural midfielder remaining.

B Silva, Camavinga and Guler are unavailable due to suspension, while Tchouameni and Pitarch are sidelined through injury. The latter two have already trained with the team, but unless something unexpected happens, they are unlikely to start and may not even make the bench. The absence of five players has left Real Madrid's midfield situation extremely difficult.

The second reason is that in Castilla's match last Saturday, Cesteros played the first half, while Sergio came on as a substitute in the second half. Neither played many minutes, with the aim of preparing them for Mourinho's decision over who will partner Valverde in midfield.

The situation of the two players is clear: both are candidates to start against Inter. The decision now belongs to Mourinho. The first option is to start either Cesteros or Sergio Martinez and avoid making major changes to the lineup.

The second option is to change the formation and adjust player positions to avoid this issue, while also avoiding placing the responsibility of such a high-pressure match on academy players. If Mourinho chooses one of the two, the balance may lean more toward Cesteros.

Cesteros followed the first team throughout preseason preparation and has fully integrated into Real Madrid's rhythm. Since last season, he has started to feature in first-team matches, making five appearances in total, including one start, across La Liga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.

Sergio Martinez has only been at Valdebebas for a week and remains in the adaptation phase. In terms of both playing time and training experience, it will be difficult for him to surpass Cesteros when Mourinho decides who should partner Valverde in midfield.

Apart from these two young players, Mourinho has almost no other ways to rebuild the midfield while dealing with a shortage of midfielders. The most direct and almost only solution that requires minimal changes is to move Bellingham deeper and form a partnership with Valverde.

This would leave Bellingham's attacking midfield role and Guler's position in Mourinho's usual 4-2-3-1 system needing replacements. Brahim, Jan Diomande and Espi could all become options to bypass the midfield crisis.

Using other solutions would mean changing the formation. At that point, the idea of using two right-sided full-backs could emerge, with Dumfries and Arnold potentially both playing on the right. Arnold could operate as the third midfielder alongside Valverde and Bellingham in the center.

The final and most aggressive option is to move Huijsen into midfield. He has good technical ability and strong physical attributes. Rudiger and Konate would form the center-back partnership, and Mourinho would only need to use the attacking players mentioned earlier to fill the vacancy left by Guler.