Real Madrid: Spanish Club Will Be Fine Without Striker Karim Benzema

Real Madrid star striker Karim Benzema is going to be out for an extended period of time after suffering a groin strain.

Jose Mourinho, the boss of Los Blancos, confirmed yesterday that his striker would be missing at least two weeks with the injury.

Real Madrid faces Espanyol today and Benzema will not be active. He also most likely won’t be ready to face Real Betis on October 15th.

The French national is going to miss two qualifiers for Euro 2012 that his country is playing in during the week as well.

Les Bleus will miss their striker, who was not on the 2010 World Cup team.

Real Madrid should be just fine without him, though, as they have Gonzalo Higuain waiting in the wings.

The 23-year-old Argentinian star has been attempting to battle against injury over the past year and should finally be ready to step up and return to form once again.

"[Higuain] started a week ago against Rayo and scored," Mourinho said. "It is difficult to compare a player like Benzema, who had a fantastic pre-season, with another who came back from complicated surgery and had a non-existent pre-season.”

Those are high words of praise from the manager and Higuain should add a new dimension to an already good Real Madrid side.

Mourinho continued, "Higuain's statistics are excellent on the field and our opponents know he has goals in him."

Higuain definitely has some goals in him as has scored 71 in 132 appearances with the club. He has been a member since 2007 but has had trouble recovering from a herniated lumbar disc.

He underwent surgery in late 2010 and was expected to take a while to return. He incredibly started returning to the pitch in April of this year and scored a hat trick against Valencia.

Real is hoping he has more performances like that in him.