Ancelotti says Courtois and Benzema will be available for El Classico

Carlo Ancelotti

thinks that

will be fit to play in Sunday's Clasico against

. At the beginning of the month, Madrid said Courtois couldn't play for an undetermined amount of time because he had sciatica.

This happened soon after the last international window, so Courtois hasn't played for Madrid since September 18, when they beat Atletico Madrid 2-1. He has missed three games in all competitions and will also miss Tuesday's Champions League game between Madrid and

Shakhtar Donetsk

in Warsaw.

But, most importantly, Ancelotti's first-choice goalkeeper is expected to be ready for Sunday's top-of-the-table match at the Santiago Bernabeu against Barcelona. 

"Courtois is much better,"

Ancelotti told the media.

"The plan is for him to start training on Thursday and be ready for Sunday. We have spoken with him and he is much better."

Courtois won't play in Poland, but

is expected to. The Frenchman missed three weeks of games after hurting his thigh in the Champions League win over Celtic last month. He came back for the 1-1 draw with Osasuna on October 2, though.

Ancelotti said before the 1-0 win over Getafe on the weekend that Benzema was "a bit tired," so he left him off for the short trip. He will be back on Tuesday, though.

"Karim is fine and it's clear that tomorrow he starts, with [Toni] Kroos and [Ferland] Mendy, who are fresh and are going to play,"

Ancelotti said. But Vinicius Junior might need a break since he has started all 12 of Madrid's games this season, in all competitions.

"Vini is one of the players that I have to evaluate because he has played everything before this trip. We have to evaluate him."

Follow

for the