Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti admits Jude Bellingham was not at his best in the Champions League semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich.
The England midfielder was taken off with 15 minutes remaining at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday when his team were trailing 2-1.
Bellingham has had a sensational first season at Real since his initial £88million move from Borussia Dortmund last summer.
He has added goals to his game, scoring 21 times in 37 appearances in all competitions, contributing a further 10 assists.
Carlo Ancelotti admits Jude Bellingham was not at his best for Real Madrid against Bayern Munich
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But he struggled to have a big impact during his time on the pitch and Ancelotti saw fit to replace him with Luka Modric in the 75th minute.
Ancelotti confirmed afterwards that the 20-year-old was 'tired' and said he was not at his usual level.
The Italian said: "Bellingham was just tired. He couldn't continue any more.
"He will get back to his best performance. I think he was injured, which affected him, but today he wasn't at his best. He will be back, for sure."
Ancelotti also told TNT Sports that Bellingham was suffering from cramp.
He wanted to add a different intensity to the midfield as his team sought a late equalising goal.
Ancelotti said: "Bellingham was tired, he had cramps and I changed and put only more energy because Kroos played a fantastic game.
"It was just to put more energy in midfield."
Real did strike late, with Vinicius Junior netting from the penalty spot to level the tie up at 2-2.
The Brazilian had opened the scoring in the first half before goals from Leroy Sane and Harry Kane in the space of four minutes turned the game on its head.
Ancelotti was disappointed with the timing of Bayern's goals and admitted his team were below par.
He said: "It was an interesting game, an open game of course. It has to be in a semi-final.
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Jude Bellingham was taken off by Carlo Ancelotti with 15 minutes of the first leg remaining
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"I think that we could have played better, I think we didn’t play our best version and we had problems in the first half with a low block, too deep.
"In the second half when we started to put pressure to equalise the game it was much better.
"I think we were comfortable with a low block but we didn’t put intensity there.
"When you have a low block, you have to have intensity, you have to win duels, you have to win second balls and we were too low.
Jude Bellingham struggled with cramp as Real Madrid drew 2-2 at Bayern Munich
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"We tried to change something in the second half and in the second half we started really well but conceded two goals, when our moment was good.
"[The second leg] will be exciting. Open. You never know what will happen."
