Mario Mandzukic Set to Return for Juventus vs. Real Madrid in Champions League

Juventus attacker Mario Mandzukic is set to be ready to return to the squad ahead of the club's crucial Champions League tie against Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Juventus attacker Mario Mandzukic is set to be ready to return to the squad ahead of the club's crucial Champions League tie against Real Madrid on Tuesday night. The Croatian was absent from Juve's 3-1 win over AC Milan on the weekend, but reports in Italy claim he will be fine to come back to the team in midweek.

It was a muscle problem that kept the oddly versatile forward out of Il Bianconeri's last Champions League encounter against Tottenham - where the Turin outfit progressed into the quarter finals of the Champions League in dramatic fashion. But this time it seems there's no stopping his chances at featuring on the European stage.

A month on from their comeback at Wembley, Tuttosport (via Calciomercato) claim that the 31-year-old is fit enough to rejoin his teammates for the hosting of Real Madrid this week, despite concerns surrounding him after missing the Milan tie.

Manduzkic may have trained separately from his teammates on Monday morning, but he fully intends to be at Max Allegri's disposal come Tuesday night when the club's most important fixture of the season rears its head - even if he isn't 100% fit.

Juventus will be hoping to avoid a repeat of what happened the last time they faced Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid side. In what feels like a lifetime ago, the Turin outfit fell to a merciless Los Blancos side in last season's Champions League final in Cardiff - crushing the dreams of the Italian side for the second time in three years.