A former Real Madrid nutritionist exposes the club's careless medical system, revealing a wrong-side knee diagnosis and the use of ChatGPT to prepare player supplements, blocking development and adhering to outdated practices.
On 25 March 2026, Itziar González, former nutritionist of Real Madrid, stepped forward to confirm reports of a failing medical team with standards unfit for a world-class club.
Itziar posted on her personal Instagram story referring to the case of Kylian Mbappé, stating that the club's medical team once performed an MRI, "diagnosing the wrong knee." This was a serious error for a player of his caliber. Mbappé had a left knee injury, but the medical team scanned his right knee, which came back "normal."
Mbappé was forced to play three more matches while still injured until it was later found that his "PCL ligament was partially torn." She said, "The worst part is, they are still working there."
World-class standards, but using the "free version of ChatGPT" to prepare programs.
Itziar added that free ChatGPT was used to create supplement schedules for highly valuable players instead of relying on deep expert analysis.
"I don’t even know which is worse: the knee misdiagnosis or that they used the free version of ChatGPT to design player supplement programs," she said.
In an interview with Marca, Itziar said she faced "hell" at work from day one. The medical team told her she was hired only because of the president's (Pérez) stubbornness and threatened to make her look "crazy" to get her fired.
When she ordered healthy food for the team, cafeteria staff served baked snacks before matches and told players to ignore her advice.
A culture of "winning 15 titles with the same methods." She said whenever she suggested nutritional changes to reduce injuries, the medical team would retort with the classic phrase, "No need to change anything, we’ve won 15 UCL titles doing it this way," reflecting an attitude blocking innovation.
Reports now indicate Real Madrid is considering restructuring parts of the medical team in response to superstar players' growing distrust of the club’s diagnoses.