Real Madrid's Pepe facing spell on sidelines

Real Madrid has disclosed that Pepe suffered a grade two muscle injury in the femoral biceps of his left leg during Saturday's routine 4-1 La Liga win at CD Alaves.

There is no time disclosed for how long Pepe will be out of contention, but the defender appears unlikely for involvement in Wednesday's Champions League trip to Legia Warsaw, next Saturday's domestic visit from CD Leganes, and maybe Portugal's World Cup qualifier against Latvia on Nov. 13.

In the weekend's match in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Nacho was introduced as Pepe's enforced replacement after 24 minutes.

A similar ailment sidelined Marcelo earlier in the campaign which incurred a three-week layoff, although some of that recuperation time was spent during the international break in October.

Sergio Ramos is already unavailable for Los Blancos with a knee injury, giving manager Zinedine Zidane a selection headache at centre-half.