Cristiano Ronaldo is out of Wednesday's Copa del Rey final against Barcelona. The top scorer in both La Liga and the Champions League this season has sat out Real Madrid's last two matches after developing knee and thigh muscle problems in his left leg and was ruled out after being unable to train on Tuesday.
The Ballon d'Or winner leads the team with 45 goals in all competitions this season and also scored the winning goal in the final three years ago against Barcelona.
The Real manager Carlo Ancelotti had suggested he might make the final earlier in the week but on the eve of the match he admitted: "Cristiano is not available because we do not want to take risks with him."
Ronaldo, 29, was an unused substitute in the Champions League quarter-final, second-leg match with Borussia Dortmund and missed Saturday's league game with Almeria, who were defeated 4-0.
Madrid said last Thursday that tests had found a problem in Ronaldo's left hamstring, although the club declined to give an estimate of how much time he might miss.
"The tests conducted on Cristiano Ronaldo have detected a muscular injury to his left hamstring," a statement said. "This is pending developments."
Ancelotti dismissed a suggestion Real could have avoided Ronaldo's injury if they had given him more rest. "Cristiano did not rest because there was no need," he said.
"There was no situation we saw that suggested he was tired and if he had been tired he would not have played. He has a problem that many players have at this stage of the season.
"We protect Cristiano in the same way we try to protect all the players as much as possible. It could be a risk playing him and we are not going to take that risk as there are very important games still to come."
Ancelotti's Barça counterpart Gerardo Martino also has injury worries and is waiting on the fitness of three of his recognised centre-backs.
The captain Carles Puyol, who has barely featured this term due to a series of injuries, Gerard Piqué and Marc Bartra were all included in the squad for the trip to Valencia and Martino said a decision would be taken on Wednesday whether they could play.
Barça's playmaker Andres Iniesta said he expected Real to be just as much of a threat without Ronaldo. "The team doesn't change whether he is playing or not,"he said. "We know how good they are and we know their potential. If Cristiano doesn't play somebody else at the same level will."
Losing Ronaldo for an extended period would be a blow to Real's hopes of claiming a rare treble of titles. They are third in La Liga, three points behind the leaders Atlético Madrid and two adrift of Barça, and play Bayern Munich in their Champions League semi-final, first leg on 23 April.
Barça are so far the only Spanish team to win Europe's elite club competition, La Liga and the King's Cup in the same season which came under Pep Guardiola in 2008-09.