Rafa Benitez had a very understated reaction to Karim Benezema’s blackmail arrest

As working weeks have gone Karim Benezema's was a bit more interesting than ours.

While our highlight may have been winning five quid on a scratchcard, Karim's lowlight was his arrest over an alleged blackmail sex tape scandal. Various reports suggest that he confessed he was involved in the plot to extract money from his fellow France international Mathieu Valbuena. You could imagine that the scandal did not go down so well with Real Madrid manager Rafa Benitez, and it's no surprise that the striker will not feature for Los Blancos in their weekend clash with Sevilla in La Liga. https://twitter.com/realmadriden/status/662966509128409089 Although we have to say we're less than taken with Rafa's explantion for his absence

“He is in the final stage of his recovery and we have decided to leave him here. Emotionally he’s fine but as he’s not travelling with us I can’t say much more. The club has issued a statement which we all adhere to. He is training, he’s doing the job he’s supposed to do and it’s a personal matter. I support Karim completely and I hope he recovers. I’m talking from the sporting perspective. He’s still a little way off and we preferred not to include him in the squad.”

The striker has been troubled by a hamstring injury but it will be interesting to see how the club handles the revelations emerging from France over the last number of days.