Jose Alberto rests key players in Copa before Real Madrid

Real Racing Club Santander

José Alberto López has made changes to the squad for the first round of the Copa del Rey against Ribadesella. The Racing coach has chosen to give rest to a large part of his most-used players, a decision aimed at managing workloads ahead of a demanding week.

The Cantabrian side has a Thursday match at Oreyana on the horizon and, above all, a visit from the Real Madrid next Sunday to El Sardinero, so the coaching staff has decided to hold back several key names.

They are left out for technical reasons Álvaro Mantilla, Aarón Martín, Pablo Ramón, André Almeida, Íñigo Vicente, Andrés Martín, Julen Agirrezabala, Matteo Prati, Sergio Canales, Yassir Zabiri, Iván Martín and Jeanuël Belocian. The absence of all of them, according to the information available, is not due to an injury report, but to a planning decision.

📋 CONVOCATORIA | Estos son los 22 elegidos por José Alberto para el partido de mañana (21:00 horas) ante el@ribadesellafc #CopaDelRey #LaCopaMola pic.twitter.com/2uuID6EQZp

— Real Racing Club (@realracingclub) October 28, 2026

📋 CONVOCATORIA | Estos son los 22 elegidos por José Alberto para el partido de mañana (21:00 horas) ante el@ribadesellafc #CopaDelRey #LaCopaMola pic.twitter.com/2uuID6EQZp

— Real Racing Club (@realracingclub) October 28, 2026

Eriksson returns to the squad

The positive note in the list is the return of Simon Eriksson. The goalkeeper is back available after being left out of the squads since September 5 due to a tendinopathy in his right shoulder.

Eriksson has already trained normally during the week and will be able to return to José Alberto's plans for the cup tie.

In Fantasy terms, the absences of the usual cup players should not be interpreted as a physical problem unless new information emerges. The main takeaway is about minutes management, so you will need to keep an eye on the squad and the starting XI for the next league match, especially with the Real Madrid game on the horizon.