Zinedine Zidane Confident Eden Hazard Will Find Form Again After COVID-19 Diagnosis

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has backed Eden Hazard to overcome COVID-19 and get back to his best form quickly, after the Belgian was forced into yet another period on the sidelines.

Hazard recovered from a muscle injury to play his first La Liga game of the season in the recent 4-1 win over Huesca, in which he scored just his second goal for the club since joining from Chelsea last summer (it was a worldie, by the way).

He has spent the last 18 months or so battling injuries, but after finally managing to shake off his issues and impress on the pitch, he now has to spend the next week in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.

"You know what he's like as a player. He's a strong player," Zidane said (via AS) when asked how Hazard took the news of his diagnosis. "It's a tough moment with injuries and everything but he's in good spirits, which is important. He has to wait a week now."

Hazard was not the only Real player to test positive in the latest round of testing. Midfielder Casemiro is also in isolation, as is defender Eder Militao, who tested positive earlier this month.

"They're not happy with what's happened but they're okay and physically they don't have many symptoms, but we know it's tough," Zidane said of Hazard and Casemiro. "I left them a message and I'll speak to them later. This can happen and we just have to accept that.

"We have to adapt to the situation. We know it could be worse. It happened to [Eder] Militao the other day, to Eden and Casemiro today. We have to accept it and keep going forward, because the strength is in the team unit. There are worse things that are happening, people are worse off elsewhere, but it's disconcerting that the training session today has been completely different the day before a game.

"It's disconcerting because you don't know what's going to happen, in what moment you're going to have positives or not and that's what's happened with these two players. They are responsible people but unfortunately it's happened. It could be worse.

"There are people in much worse situations who are really, really suffering outside of football. But in the world of football I'm a manager and I prefer to have them available, obviously."

Zidane will be without Hazard, Casemiro and Militao for Sunday's meeting with Valencia, with Real looking to make it ten consecutive away games in the league without defeat for the first time in three years.

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