Madrid go into the Christmas break a massive 12 points behind Primera Liga leaders Barcelona after losing four of their last six league matches, while overall the Spanish giants have been defeated in seven of their last 15 competitive outings.

One of the main reasons for that dire run of form is the club's injury problems, which have seen Ruud van Nistelrooy, Mahamadou Diarra and Ruben de la Red ruled out for the season, and the likes of Pepe, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Gabriel Heinze and Miguel Torres also sidelined for varying periods recently.

Madrid should welcome back a number of their absentees by the time the league restarts in 2009, while new arrivals Klaas Jan Huntelaar, Lassana Diarra and Dani Parejo should also be available - and for Cannavaro those reinforcements cannot come soon enough.

"All I'm interested in is being able to recover the injured players. If we do, we can defeat anyone. With 10 players missing like we had in this period, we could lose against anyone," said the Italian World Cup winner, who has not given up hope of catching runaway leaders Barca just yet.

"I know that nobody has ever overturned a 12-point deficit to win La Liga, but our objective is to reduce as much of the difference as possible before we next face them (Barcelona). Then, after the 'derby', there will still be five weeks remaining," he said in Gazzetta dello Sport.

Madrid should be much closer to full strength when next February they resume their bid to be crowned European champions for the 10th time in their history.

To achieve that Madrid must first overcome Liverpool in the last 16 of the Champions League - a stage the Spanish side have failed to get beyond since 2004.

Looking ahead to that match, Cannavaro said: "In the last four years we have always gone out at the last 16 and they (Liverpool) have made two finals and a semi-final...the newspapers say they are favourites, and that's fine by me."