One of the highly anticipated battles taking place on the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu pitch on Sunday would have been between Casemiro and Marcos Llorente, were either play available for selection.

The Brazilian has long been the only true anchor man option in Zinedine Zidane's squad whereas his opposite number, on loan at Alaves from Real Madrid, can be counted as one of the revelations of the LaLiga season.

However Llorente has a clause in his Babazorros contract that forbids him from playing against his parent club, leaving the visitors high and dry, without their best ball winning midfielder.Similarly, Casemiro is suspended from the weekend fixture thanks to a fifth booking picked up against Athletic Club last time out.

The battle between the two is set to commence soon enough, of course, as 22-year-old Llorente is favoured for a return to Madrid in the summer where he'll get the opportunity to fight his counterpart for a place in the Blancos XI.

Zidane is all too aware that Casemiro has no natural back-up in the squad, and if the Alaves loanee can continue his development in the tough tackler's shadow, then his future at Real may be a prosperous one.