MADRID: Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal suffered a serious knee injury in their La Liga win against Villarreal on Saturday, after the Spanish champions recovered their winning touch.

Real beat Villarreal 2-0 to bounce back after two games without a victory, having lost 1-0 at Lille in the Champions League on Wednesday and being held to a 1-1 draw at Atletico Madrid in their previous league game.

Federico Valverde`s deflected effort and a rocket from Vinicius Jr allowed Real to put a four-point gap between them and their third-placed opponents, who battled well but came up fractionally short in the capital.

But the defending champi-ons were dealt a blow in stoppage time when Carvajal`s screams of pain were heard and the stadium went silent as the right-back needed to be carried away on a stretcher.

`He has been diagnosed with a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, a rupture of the external collateral ligament and a rupture of the popliteal tendon in his right leg,` Real Madrid said in a statement.

The right-back, who won Euro 2024 with Spain this summer, confirmed he would miss a few months himself on social media network Instagram.

`A serious cruciate ligament injury has been confirmed, I`m going to have to undergo surgery and beout for a few months, wrote Carvajal.

`I can`t wait to start myrecovery and come back like a beast. Thank you very much to everyone for your mes-sages, I feel very loved.

Carvajal, 32, got injured in a duel with Villarreal midfielder Yeremy Pino, when his right knee suffered an unnatural movement as the player stretched it upwards.

Carvajal`s injury is another blow to Real defence, who were without goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois against Villarreal after the Belgian keeper suffered an injury to the abductor of his left leg in the Atletico draw last weekend.

Real`s superstar signing Kylian Mbappe started the match after the French striker had recovered from a thigh problem.

But the French captain was quiet at the Santiago Bernabeu as his team groundout victory with a determined, rather than inspiring, performance.

Mbappe sent an early volley off-target from Luka Modric`s corner but it was midfield powerhouse Valverde who broke the deadlock after 14 minutes.

The Uruguayan`s drive from distance deflected off Villarreal playmaker Alex Baena and arced beyond the reach of goalkeeper Diego Conde.

The visitors, enjoying a strong start to the season under coach Marcelino Garcia Toral, came close when Nicolas Pepe`s header clipped the top of the crossbar.

Vinicius flashed a shot narrowly wide, before his strike partner Mbappe was replacedwith 20 minutes to go by Rodrygo Goes.

Brazil striker Vinicius, who is hoping to win a first Ballon d`Or later in October, netted the second with a superb effort from outside the area, which ripped into the top corner.

Earlier, nine-man Celta Vigo earned a 1-0 win at bottom-of-the-table Las Palmas.

The Canary Islanders were unable to record their first win of the season even after Ilaix Moriba and Iago Aspas` red cards for Celta, who climbed to ninth thanks to Borja Iglesias` goal.

Osasuna moved into fifth with a 1-1 draw at Getafe, while Espanyolbeat Mallorca 2-1 and Rayo Vallecano won at Valladolid by the same score.-Agencies