Zidane: “Hazard has apologised, that’s in the past now”

Zinedine Zidane has revealed that he spoke to Eden Hazard after the controversy that arose from the images of him laughing straight after Real Madrid’s defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday. The coach wants to move on from that incident, as he explained in his Saturday press conference.

On that, Zidane said: “Hazard has apologised. He didn’t mean to offend anybody and he explained this in his apology. He is going to help us going forward. Until now, we haven’t been able to see the player he is, but we hope we’ll see that version of Hazard soon. He is a Real Madrid player and will compete for Real Madrid. He has a contract here.

Speaking about the Sevilla game, Zidane said: “We have four matches remaining and they are four finals. We need to forget about the Champions League and just think about tomorrow. Sevilla are a team that will compete. They’ve shown from the start until now that they’re a good team and they’re fighting to win the title too.”

Real Madrid will be without Sergio Ramos again for that match, but Zidane dismissed the suggestion that the centre-back was rushed back too early. The coach stated: “Ramos was 100 percent when he played the other day. The important thing is that he recovers soon. We’ve had many injuries and that is a concern. This year, players haven’t been able to rest. I hope next year will be different in that sense.”

Asked if he’ll be there for next year, Zidane once again shrugged off this question about his future. He said: “I’ll always make things easy for the club because they’ve given me everything. I give my all and focus on work. My father told me to focus on the work. The rest is blah, blah, blah.”