Chicharito deserves opportunity to shine for ailing Real Madrid

The BBC will not broadcast from the Bernabéu this Wednesday. Instead, Real Madrid will have to settle for just the 'C 

Two-thirds of Los Merengues’s first-choice attack – Bale, Benzema and Cristiano – are injured, the Welshman damaging his calf during Saturday’s 3-1 win over Malaga and the France striker yet to recover from a knee sprain he suffered last week. Neither will play in the Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Atlético Madrid. 

For Carlo Ancelotti, it is an unenviable situation. With Luka Modric also unavailable, the manager will need to remodel his entire attacking gameplan. 

Then again, that might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Madrid, after all, have failed to beat their city rivals in any of the last seven meetings. A fresh approach was required and now Ancelotti has no choice but to find one. Besides, he is not short of adequate reserves. 

In midfield, Ancelotti can swap Modric for Sami Khedira – a very different player, but still a World Cup winner with 54 Germany caps to his name. Assuming the manager chooses to preserve the 4-4-2 formation used against Malaga, then all he needs to do up front is select Javier Hernández in place of Bale. 

Chicharito deserves the opportunity. 

Since joining Madrid on loan from Manchester United in the summer, he has been granted desperately few. In total he has started just six times for Real Madrid across all competitions. He has made a further 19 appearances off the bench. 

He makes no secret of his frustration. "I co-operate, I help, and give 100% in training," he told Fox Sports whilst on international duty with Mexico at the end of March. "I’m in a team but excluded from the bit that matters, the games. At times my confidence is rock bottom although I try for it to be sky high."

Perhaps he should have seen this coming. The BBC were in place before he arrived, so opportunities up front were always going to be limited. But Hernández believed he could offer a different skillset – one based less on strength than on subtlety. Chicharito has mastered the art of drifting away from a marker at just the right moment to make himself available for a cross or through-ball. 

He did it against Eibar earlier this month, heading home an Alvaro Arbeloa cross to help his team to a 3-0 victory.

It was Hernández’s fourth goal in La Liga, despite being only his second start in that competition. He averages one for every 105.5 minutes on the pitch. As he put it during that conversation with Fox Sports: "Whenever they [Real] have placed their confidence in me, the numbers have been positive."

More than just numbers, Chicharito is a player who adds an injection of enthusiasm to his team. He is a man who sincerely adores playing football – a truth that holds for fewer professionals than fans might like to imagine. As the son of another Mexico international, Javier Hernández Gutiérrez, he has noted in the past that "I grew up with football all around me … it was the only thing we talked about."

Asked shortly after his arrival in Madrid whether he was prepared for the responsibility of challenging for major trophies, he replied not by fawning but by outlining his view of what really mattered. "I’m ready to enter the changing room," he said, "to train with my team-mates, and to be able to play football, which is the most important thing."

"This is something I never want to forget – that leaving aside everything else, the thing I love most, the thing I always dreamed of doing was to play football. This is a game, and you have to enjoy it. I understand the responsibility, I understand what it means to wear this shirt, what this club represents, but the most important thing is to play football."

It is the reason why Hernández will almost certainly move on again this summer, seeking a team that will grant him the playing opportunities he desires. As a younger man, he almost walked away from the professional game altogether after being overlooked too often at Chivas. At 26, with 72 Mexico caps under his belt, he knows that there are plenty of others who would love to give him a game. 

Until then, he will continue to give everything he has to the team that he has – whenever they grant him the opportunity. Fate is obliging them to do so this Wednesday. Hernández will surely relish every minute.