Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier is set to make a return from a 10-week ban in this weekends highly anticipated Madrid derby.
The England right-back was suspended in December and fined £70,000 after a Football Association panel found he broke betting rules.
Atletico have struggled to find a replacement for Trippier’s creativity during his absence.
He has made 39 appearances in Spain’s top flight since joining from Tottenham for £20m in July 2019 and is available for Sunday’s game as leaders Atletico look to pull eight points clear of neighbors Real Madrid.
Meanwhile, Suarez has also made a significant impact since leaving Barcelona last September.
The former Liverpool forward, Luis Suarez has scored 16 of his side’s 47 league goals, twice as many as Atletico’s second leading scorer Marcos Llorente.
“We want to show why we’re top of the league,” Suarez told La Liga TV.
Atletico can take a huge step towards securing a first La Liga title since 2014 by beating third-placed Real.
However, Diego Simeone’s side have not beaten Real in the league for five years and have won just two of their last six matches in all competitions.
The did return to winning ways last Sunday with a 2-0 win away to Villarreal.
Real Madrid finished with 17 more points than Atletico on their way to winning La Liga last season.
But Zinedine Zidane’s side have struggled for consistency in 2020-21, losing four times – one more than the whole of last season.
They arrive at the derby unbeaten in six games although it required an 89th minute equaliser by Vinicius Junior to rescue a point against Real Sociedad on Monday.
Real have an attacking problem to solve, unless Karim Benzema can spring a surprise by recovering from injury in time to feature.
“Karim can be with us and the idea is that he will be but he hasn’t trained yet,” Zidane said on Monday.
