Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale will not be playing against his former side Tottenham Hotspur when Champions League action rolls around again.
The Wales international, who missed the La Liga champions’ match against Espanyol on Sunday due to calf strain, was initially ruled out of Wales’s world-cup qualifiers. However, according to Spanish publication Marca, and The Guardian, the two tabloids claimed that the ex-Spurs winger will spend at least a month on the sidelines.
Marca have made claims of a new calf injury which was discovered after a soft training session with Wales camp on Monday.
Further tests on him revealed the problem, and the player is now set to miss both Madrid’s Champions League fixtures against Tottenham, as well as La Liga matches against Getafe, Eibar and Girona, with a Copa del Rey fixture against Fuenlabrada also marked down for the period.
Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane had said that he simply rested the Wales star as a precaution on the weekend, but it appears that Bale’s issues are much worse than first thought.
This becomes the second injury woes to Zidane’s side this season after ruling Karim Benzema for the next four to six weeks according to a Madrid Community.
Gareth Bale has been ruled out of Wales' crucial World Cup qualifiers against Georgia and the Republic of Ireland ➡️ https://t.co/eTXCRZa2zk pic.twitter.com/mYY7LQm4NH
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) October 3, 2017
Madrid have already had a few hamstring injuries in recent times, with Varane’s lengthy absence is one in particular to note. In Varane’s case, he suffered a recurrence of the injury in his first game back and despite some criticism of the medics at the time, that does tend to be an unfortunate risk with these injuries.
Dani Carvajal also picked up a hamstring injury last season, as did Álvaro Morata and Marcelo. Like most players, Karim has suffered with hamstring strains in the past so this will be nothing new to him.