Real Madrid Star Marcelo out Injured Until After the International Break

Real Madrid are still suffering from the fallout of their 5-1 defeat to Barcelona in El Clasico on Sunday and have lost star defender Marcelo to a muscle injury that will keep him sidelined until after the next international break. 

Marca's Hugo Cerezo wrote the Brazilian will be absent for the upcoming games against Melilla, Real Valladolid, Viktoria Plzen and Celta Vigo in November. Los Blancos return to action away to Eibar on November 24 after a fortnight's break.

Marcelo carried the muscle injury to the Camp Nou but scored Real's only goal in El Clasico—his second in the league this season—and he will be missed as the Madrid giants seek to correct their form of one win in seven games.

Real announced on Monday that Julen Lopetegui had been sacked following the dismal run, having failed to keep a clean sheet in that time. The embarrassing defeat in Catalonia was the final straw for Real's board.

Cerezo confirmed striker Mariano Diaz has also picked up an injury and will be absent from Real training for the next 15 days. The capital club have lost five of their last seven matches and need all the resources they can muster.

It's no secret Real have struggled for goals of late and only recently endured the longest scoring drought in their history, per The Independent, which Marcelo ended when he scored in a 2-1 home defeat to Levante.

The left-back has scored twice more since then. In fact, he's netted three of Real's last four goals—Karim Benzema supplied the other in a 2-1 win over Plzen—although football writer Michael Yokhin noted that's perhaps not a good thing:

The 30-year-old handed Real a lifeline in their loss at Barca to halve the 2-0 deficit soon after half-time, but he couldn't keep the comeback going as the visitors were washed away.

Sports writer Euan McTear joked about the Marcelo being out of action and how his mounting impact in front of goal will be noticed:

Los Blancos have few left-back replacements. Centre-back Nacho can play there but showed in the defeat to Barca how he can be exploited at full-back, having lined up on the right initially for that trip.

Otherwise, they could look to academy starlet Sergio Reguilon, whose only senior appearance in Real colours was a 90-minute outing in their 1-0 UEFA Champions League defeat to CSKA Moscow.

The defender has been training with the first team on occasion this term, although journalist Mootaz Chehade posted a video showing it hasn't always been a pleasant experience:

Reguilon's chances of getting the first-team nod seem all the more likely considering Santiago Solari, the man who's managed him for the past two seasons in Real Madrid B, has replaced Lopetegui as caretaker manager.

Marcelo has been named in the FIFPro World XI for the past four seasons in succession, and any short-term replacement will struggle to match his output.