Malaga CF prepare for Atlético Madrid trip with 19 first-team players available

Malaga CF continued preparations on Sunday for their opening league match against Atlético Madrid with only 19 first-team players currently available to head coach Juanfran Funes.

Juanpe, who has been recovering from an injury suffered last season, is continuing with a programme of individual and partial training, while fellow midfielder Aaron Ochoa also worked separately as he serves a suspension following his dismissal against Almeria in the second leg of the promotion play-off final.

Defenders Fernando Calero, Diego Murillo and Moussa Diarra, midfielder Carlos Dotor and forward Adrián Niño also remained in the gym as they continued their respective recovery programmes.

Left-back Dani Sánchez, meanwhile, is expected to leave the club and was not included in the squad for the recent Trofeo Costa del Sol win over Fulham.

Malaga trained from around 10am on Sunday, with the session focused on possession and technical and tactical exercises. They have two more training sessions scheduled before Wednesday's 9pm kick-off, with the squad due to travel to Madrid by train on Tuesday lunchtime.

The shortage of senior players could see Funes call up Otu and Juani from the reserve side. Both have featured regularly during pre-season and can operate in more than one position, giving the coach additional options.

Atlético Madrid will be without injured striker Alexander Sorloth. Their World Cup finalists have only recently returned to training, potentially limiting the minutes available to Julián Álvarez, Álex Baena, Marcos Llorente and others.