REAL MADRID
Zidane to deal with hot button issue of Bale on Thursday
Gareth Bale returns to training with Real Madrid on Thursday after playing for Wales twice and posing with 'Wales, Golf, Madrid' flag after Euro qualification.
The Gareth Bale news never stops and it won't stop until his situation at Real Madrid is fixed, although it seems that he isn't too keen on normalising things. The last few weeks at Madrid have made that clear and the recent waving of the 'Wales, Gold, Madrid' flag has enraged many in Madrid.
He left to play with Wales after missing 46 days for Real Madrid in which he couldn't even manage a training session with his teammates. He was recovering from an injury, a secret injury since he won't let Real Madrid publish updates on his health. During that time, Madrid played six games with four in LaLiga and two in the Champions League.
It's up to Zidane now to see if he will let Bale off or not. It is the hot button issue at Real Madrid with Bale returning on Thursday. It's on that day that he will return to Valdebebas to train with his teammates, or work on his own again. Many things have changed since Bale injured himself against Croatia on 13 October.
The emergence of Rodrygo is one with the Brazilian winning a call-up by Tite and scoring a hat-trick against Galatasaray in the Champions League. He looks to be the solution on the right of Zidane's attack with Vinicius, Lucas Vázquez, Brahim and Bale vying for time.
Zidane will release his squad list on the day before Real Sociedad. On Friday, we will find out if he has chosen to forgive Bale or not. Before the injury and despite having one foot out the door in the summer, Zidane had come to rely on the Welshman. He only missed three squad lists and played in seven games with two goals and two assists to start the season. We are about to find out if Zidane sticks with the attacker or punishes him for his attitude.