Al-Ittihad coach explains why he has not included Benzema in the bid for the AFC Champions League

Saudi Arabian Al-Ittihad's head coach, Marcelo Gallardo, explained why he had not included Karim Benzema in the squad for the first leg of the AFC Champions League round of 16 against Uzbekistan's Navbahor.

According to him, the sole reason lies in Benzema's physical unpreparedness to participate in the match.

“He is currently training alone, after joining the team several days ago. When he is physically and technically ready, he will undoubtedly join the group. This will most likely happen next week.” told Gellardo.

Earlier reports highlighted another misunderstanding between Benzema and Gallardo. Last week, the forward decided to leave the team's training session after the head coach asked him to train separately from the team. As a result, the star Frenchman missed the Professional League match against Al-Taawoun.

In the current season, the Real Madrid and France national team legend has scored 12 goals and provided five assists in 20 matches across all competitions.