Real Madrid will return to the Bernabeu for the first time in 18 months when they welcome Celta to the venue on Sunday.

They would have wished to have Kylian Mbappe making his debut, but after Paris Saint-Germain knocked back their massive offer for the France international, they will have to make do with what they have.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side go into matchday four top of La Liga, tied with Sevilla, Valencia, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and newly promoted Mallorca on seven points.

The coach, however, will have one eye on Wednesday’s Champions League meeting away to Inter, while he will also be mindful that many of his players have been away on international duty over the last 10 days and have been heavily used by these teams.

Fede Valverde, Casemiro, Eder Militao and Vinicius Junior have all returned late from international duty, putting their participation from the beginning of this match in some doubt.

Furthermore, there are significant headaches in the midfield, where Toni Kroos and Dani Ceballos are both out injured and there are slight doubts over Luka Modric. This means that Deadline Day signing Eduardo Camavinga could feature from the beginning of the match.

The other area of significant uncertainty is the middle of the defence, where Militao’s late return from Brazil duty could stop him from featuring. David Alaba is poised to feature alongside Nacho, though the Spaniard will have to overcome a slight knock.

Ferland Mendy will probably be missing from the left-back slot, although this should be compensated for by the return of Marcelo.

In attack, Ancelotti is likely to stick by the experienced trio of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Eden Hazard.

The bench, however, could be looking rather thin for Los Blancos in this encounter, so they may need to lean on their stars to get the job done.

Real Madrid starting XI versus Celta