Morocco: Real Madrid defender pulls out of squad

The Lions of the Atlas will be without breakout teen, Achraf Hakimi for this months’ friendlies as result of the injury he picked out on his first day of training. The 19 year old suffered the injury in Turin ahead of Morocco’s match against Serbia in preparation for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in June. Hakimi came to the spotlight after being deployed by Zinedine Zidane on the right back position of the Los Blancos set up in the absence of injured Dani Carvajal. Since then, he has appeared 14 times for Real Madrid this season scoring once and was handed his Moroccan debut by Herve Renard also scoring in his four international caps so far.

Achraf Hakimi was born in Spain and has always represented Morocco at youth level even though he had an option to play for the European giants.