'Essential' Casemiro close to burn-out with El Clasico on the horizon | OneFootball

He’s arguably been Real Madrid’s most important player this season, but Zinedine Zidane faces a huge dilemma over Casemiro this coming week.

The Brazil international has played 1,114 minutes out of a possible 1,170 this season, equating to just over 95 per cent.

And that was compounded this weekend when the midfielder travelled to Singapore and played a full 90 minutes as the Seleçao took on Senegal and Nigeria in a pair of friendlies.

Casemiro will then travel back to Madrid tomorrow, and as Marca have pointed out in their latest editorial, they absolutely have to keep him fresh for El Clasico, which takes place at Camp Nou on October 26.

But, as the Madrid-based paper have revealed, he’s been dubbed ‘Señor Essential’ by the dressing room and will likely feature in their trip to Real Mallorca this coming weekend.

Added to that a midweek Champions League trip to Galatasaray in between, and Marca rightly pose the theory that it surely won’t be long before Casemiro burns out.