Jose Mourinho laid his cards on the table when he left goalkeeper Iker Casillas out of the Real Madrid squad to play in Zaragoza on Saturday night.

Casillas had been back in full training for a week before the squad for the game, which ended in a 1-1 draw, was announced and many expected the Real Madrid and Spain captain to return, if not to the first team, then at least to the substitutes' bench.

That was not the case and Casillas was left to continue his training in Madrid with Mourinho's assistant, Aitor Karanka left to invent a term to explain his absence.

Karanka said that although Casillas had been given the medical all clear, he had not been given a 'competitive all-clear'.

In a rare appearance in front of the press following his side's disappointing performance in Zaragoza, Mourinho was more specific explaining that he didn't consider Casillas to be match-fit.

When questioned whether or not Casillas would be back in the side for the game to face Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday night, he assured he would not, adding there was a chance he could return to the squad for next weekend's league game at home to Levante.

However, despite the fact Casillas could return to the squad, it looks almost impossible for him to force his way back into the first team, partly because of the form of Diego Lopez over the past two months.

Lopez, who spent several season's as Casillas' understudy before moving in search of first team action at Villarreal, where he won a place in the Spain squad in the run up to the 2010 World Cup and reached the semi-final of the Champions League, has been in excellent form.

His saves in Old Trafford, as much as the performance of the Turkish referee, were responsible for keeping Madrid in Europe and his saves on Saturday earned his side a draw they barely deserved.

It would be unfair to drop Lopez just because Casillas is once again fit, but there does seem to be more behind the decision than just footballing reasons.

The past season has been filled with rumors of dressing room discontent between soe of the player and Jose Mourinho and the start of 2013 saw the story leaked that Casillas and Sergio Ramos, another player who has been singled out for criticism by the Madrid coach, had given club president, Florentino Perez an ultimatum that if Mourinho continued beyond the end of the current campaign, players would ask for transfers away from the club.

The atmosphere was confirmed when Casillas' journalist girlfriend, Sara Carbonero confirmed the bad atmosphere in the Madrid dressing room in her weekly slot on Mexican TV.

Mourinho had already dropped Casillas for a couple of games before his injury, arguing that reserve keeper Antonio Adan was in better form, but then discredited his own reasoning by dropping Adan as soon as Lopez, who had been out of form at Sevilla, arrived following Casillas' injury.

So the way things stand at the moment, the first team gloves as Lopez's to lose: it is hard to see Mourinho dropping him next weekend and there is no way Casillas is going to return to action for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final.

Mourinho seems to have got his way, but with the Madrid coach's future in doubt at the end of the season, what happens afterwards in anyone's guess.