Alvaro Arbeloa hit out at the "completely false" claims over Kylian Mbappe's injury misdiagnosis.

Mbappe has spent the last four months battling with a knee issue.

Reports last month suggested Madrid's medical staff had initially misdiagnosed the issue and scanned the wrong knee.

Mbappe denied those reports while he was on international duty with France, and Arbeloa doubled down ahead of Madrid's LaLiga clash with Mallorca.

"Mbappe has clearly said that this information is absolutely false," he told reporters.

"I think it's time to leave Mbappe's knee behind and focus on his goals, on the goal he scored with his national team, and hopefully the goals he will score with us too.

"Like the goal he scored for his national team, and hopefully he can score them for us too. And get back to the level he's shown and is capable of. Which is the level we want. And be able to enjoy and talk about his goals, the quality he has, and how much he can help us."

Eder Militao has missed much of the season due to injury, but Arbeloa confirmed the defender is back in contention.

Meanwhile, he was not displeased with Jude Bellingham electing to go to England's camp, despite having only just come back from an injury lay-off himself.

"His case was a bit unusual, because he did play a few minutes against Atletico Madrid and now the England manager has decided he won't play," Arbeloa said of Bellingham, who did not feature for the Three Lions in either of their two friendlies.

"I also understand that they didn't want to take any risks. I think Jude is smart enough to have had some good training sessions. To keep getting himself fit. And he's ready to play. To help the team, which is what we need. For him to get back into match fitness. And... that's all."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

Mallorca - Vedat Muriqi 

Muriqi has scored all three of his LaLiga goals against Madrid with his head across seven appearances.

Since the 2003-04 season, only Fernando Llorente (four) has netted more headed goals against Madrid in the competition (four).

Real Madrid - Vinicius Junior

Vinicius has scored 72 goals in 234 games in LaLiga and has equalled Luis Fabiano as the third-highest Brazilian goalscorer in the competition in the 21st century, only behind Ronaldo Nazario (83) and Willian Jose (81).

MATCH PREDICTION: REAL MADRID WIN

Following their 2-1 victory against Espanyol on MD28, Martin Demichelis could become the third Mallorca coach to win each of his first two home games in the 21st century, after Sergio Kresic in 2001 and Javier Aguirre in 2022.

Mallorca have won two of their last five home games against Real Madrid CF in LaLiga (D1 L2), one more victory than in their previous 12 encounters on the island in the competition (W1 D3 L8).

However, Los Blancos have won 13 of their last 16 games against Mallorca in LaLiga (D1 L2), scoring in the last five (seven goals). Madrid have not had a longer scoring run against the Balearic side in the competition since May 2010 (16 games, 39 goals).

Mallorca have lost five of their last seven games in LaLiga (W1 D1), suffering as many defeats as in their previous 14 matches in the competition (W5 D4 L5).

Madrid, on the other hand, have won 11 of their last 13 games in LaLiga (L2), although they have conceded at least one goal in their last six league matches (eight goals).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

Mallorca - 20.1%

Draw - 22.6%

Real Madrid - 57.3%