Pepe To Miss Zaragoza Game

Pepe will miss Real Madrid's home tie with Real Zaragoza on Sunday after failing to recover from a muscle strain.

Pepe picked up the injury in Real's first training session back after the Christmas break and Bernd Schuster does not want to risk the Portuguese defender when he is not one hundred percent fit.

He will instead be rested for Sunday's game in anticipation of their Copa del Rey tie with Mallorca in mid-week and will join fellow defender Christian Metzelder on the sidelines.

Gabriel Heinze has returned from injury and Bernd Schuster is likely to slot him straight into the team alongside Fabio Cannavaro in central defence.

Jordi Codina, Míchel Salgado, Royston Drenthe, Javier Balboa and Roberto Soldado all fail to make the match-day squad due to Bernd Schuster's selection, with two or three of them looking certain to leave Real in January.

Soldado is the surprise admission from Schuster's squad, as he performed well against Alicante in the Spanish Cup on Wednesday and was expected to be part of his plans for Sunday's clash.

There are already interested clubs swooping around the Bernabeu for those players who are out of favor at the moment and it is thought that Schuster would be more than happy to see a few of his fringe players leave the club, even those such as Drenthe, who only joined in the summer.

Real's eighteen man squad for the Zaragoza tie will be as follows: Iker Casillas, Dudek, Sergio Ramos, Cannavaro, Heinze, Marcelo, Miguel Torres, Gago, Guti, Diarra, Sneijder, Baptista, Robben, Robinho, Higuaín, Saviola, Van Nistelrooy and Raúl.