Jose pulling strokes, not strings

I have never seen a benched player support his team as passionately as Iker Casillas cheered on Real Madrid against Malaga on Saturday night.

Dropped by Jose Mourinho, Casillas could have been forgiven for sulking, pouting, maybe suppressing a smirk as Real went 3-1 down late in the game. Instead, he reacted like each Malaga goal was a knife in his ribs, and celebrated Karim Benzema’s strike for 3-2 as though he had scored it himself. Olympian selflessness from the model pro, the ultimate team-man, Jesus in stripey red socks. Sunday’s Marca described him as “the saint of saints of the club”. Mission accomplished.

Marca has been central to the unravelling of the relationship between Mourinho and some of the senior players at Real Madrid. In January, the paper alleged that there had been angry exchanges between Mourinho, Sergio Ramos and Casillas. Mourinho told the Spanish internationals that “your friends in the press protect you... like the goalkeeper.”