Real Madrid's Rafael Van Der Vaart And Pepe Return To Light Training

Real Madrid returned to training today after Cristiano Ronaldo's near single-handed demolition of Mallorca last night at the Ono Estadi and received further good news.

As reported by Marca, Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart has recovered enough from his torn hamstring injury to take the pitch and do light ball exercises with his team-mates in training. The Dutchman has a good chance of returning to action for Real Madrid's final Liga fixture at Malaga.

Madrid were greeted to even better news as Portuguese central defender Pepe did light ball exercises after successfully recovering from a serious knee injury that has seen the towering defender out of action since late 2009 when Madrid faced Valencia at La Mestalla.

It has now been determined that Pepe does not have a chance of returning to action for either of Madrid's two remaining matches, but his objective remains this summer's World Cup in South Africa. Pepe was included in Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz's provisional 50-man World Cup roster.

The rest of the Madrid squad took part in a light training session in an effort to recover from their travels and last night's match. The starters trained indoors while the substitutes, along with Van der Vaart and Pepe, took the pitch for training. Lassana Diarra also took part in the light training as he continues to recover from injury.