Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he was forced to substitute Jude Bellingham against Bayern Munich due to cramp.
The two sides played out an enthralling 2-2 draw at the Allianz Arena in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final, with a brace from Vinicius Jnr cancelled out by goals from Leroy Sane and Harry Kane to leave the tie finely poised.
Bellingham has had a stunning impact since arriving at Real last summer, with the 20-year-old scoring 21 goals in all competitions.
However, eyebrows were raised when the Birmingham City youth product was withdrawn for Luka Modric with 15 minutes to play against Bayern.
The midfielder, who was substituted alongside Toni Kroos, had struggled to assert himself on the game, but Ancelotti explained how his double change was as a result of physical issues.
‘Bellingham was tired,’ he told TNT Sports. ‘He had cramps and I changed and put on more energy because Kroos played a fantastic game.
‘It was just to put more energy in midfield.’
Speaking later at his post-match press conference, Ancelotti added: ‘He couldn’t continue any more. I have enough good players on the bench. He will get back to his best performance.
‘I think he was injured, which affected him, but today he wasn’t at his best. He will be back, for sure, and on Wednesday he will be at 100 per cent again.’
Ancelotti also went onto reflect on his side’s performance in Germany, and admitted they need to be better in the return leg next week.
He continued: ‘It was an interesting game, an open game of course. It has to be in a semi-final. I think that we could have played better, I think we didn’t play our best version and we had problems in the first half with a low block, too deep.
‘In the second half when we started to put pressure to equalise the game it was much better.
‘I think we were comfortable with a low block but we didn’t put intensity there. When you have a low block, you have to have intensity, you have to win duels, you have to win second balls and we were too low.
‘We tried to change something in the second half and in the second half we started really well but conceded two goals, when our moment was good.’
The two sides meet at the Bernabeu next Wednesday for the second leg, with the winner of the tie to play either PSG or Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final at Wembley on June 1.
