Life without BBC

(Marca)- Real Madrid have become accustomed to living without its front three. What Florentino Perez put together has been separated again because of a curse that returns with the injury of Karim Benzema, just before Cristiano Ronaldo, the member of the attack that was missing at the beginning of season, is due back.

Zinedine Zidane can welcome the Portuguese back on Wednesday, but loses Karim for the next four weeks at least, meaning one more month to wait for BBC to finally start a match again.

The Frenchman has not had his attacking trident playing alongside each other since April 23, the day of El Clasico against Barcelona, and he has only had them as starters on 16 occasions out of the last 66 official matches; a huge 24 percent of games. Benzema's injury will only expand these figures and prolong the streak, which will now go beyond five months.Bale's operation Since the last campaign, there have been numerous setbacks for the front three.

Last year, Madrid already started without them and in fact, faced the first official match, the European Super Cup, without any of the three in the starting line up and only Benzema on the bench.

Ronaldo was late joining the team after the injury he sustained in the Euro 2016 final, the Portuguese not starting a match until the September 10 game against Osasuna. Two months later Bale would be seriously injured and Real would face three months without the Welshman.In total, Bale missed 19 league games in addition to Real's entire cup run, and he was also banned for two games after a red card at Las Palmas.

The new injury that he suffered after recovering from the ankle surgery ended up reducing him to the last 13 minutes of the Champions League final in Cardiff.Ronaldo's punishmentWith Bale out of action, Zidane's rotation policy also meant that in many matches he didn't even count on the other two members of BBC. Madrid not only got used to living without its luxury trident, but topped the league without them. At the beginning of this season life remains the same in a sense.

Ronaldo rejoined the preseason after the Confederations Cup and his sending off at the Camp Nou prevented Zidane from joining his three strikers together for the first time since that April 23 encounter.Benzema's injury is something else that Madrid need to recover from - quickly.