Benzema, Courtois and Hazard missing from Madrid’s squad

Real Madrid have released the 22-man squad of players that travelled to Rabat, Morocco, for their Club World Cup campaign, and the list had significant absentees.

Real Madrid are Europe's representative in the competition after winning the Champions League last season and are set to face Al Ahly in the semi-finals on Wednesday.

Real Madrid players landed in Morocco today for the Club World Cup semi-final against Al-Ahly of Egypt, and a possible final against the winner of the game between CONMEBOL’s Flamengo and AFC’s Al Hilal that kicks off on Tuesday night.

The Los Blancos released a list of 22 players that made the trip, and Karim Benzema and Thibaut Courtois who both missed Real Madrid’s last outing, a defeat in LaLiga to Mallorca, through injury, were absent.

Eder Militao, who has been a stalwart in Real Madrid’s defence and has been one of their better performers this season is also absent as he is injured.

Many of the usual suspects were included, with Toni Kroos and Luka Modric available in midfield alongside young Rodygo and Vinicius in attack, and the duo of Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba in defence.

Eden Hazard, Ferland Mendy and Lucas Vazquez did not make the cut.

The Club World Cup provides an opportunity for European teams that have won the Champions League the previous season to pick up another piece of silverware, as the competition has been dominated by European winners over the years.

Only one non-European team has won the competition in its last 15 editions: Corinthians in the 2012/2013 season when they beat Chelsea to the prize with a 1-0 scoreline.

Real Madrid would look to the Club World Cup for silverware this season, with the LaLiga title now slipping away after their loss to Mallorca dropped them to eight points behind Barcelona and their Supercopa de Espana loss to Xavi's men denying them a trophy celebration.