REAL MADRID
Bale puts an end to embargo on his medical updates
A year after the last one, Real Madrid have released a medical statement on Gareth Bale, who is set to miss the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.
Gareth Bale will not travel to Saudi Arabia for the Spanish Super Cup due to an "infection in the upper respiratory tract" according to Real Madrid's official medical report. The update came as a surprise and not just because of the unexpected absence of Bale but because the club don't usually release updates about the Welsh attacker.
It has been exactly a year since Madrid released a medical report about Bale. He suffered a grade 1 soleus injury in his left leg then. El Chiringuito reported in October that Bale asked Real Madrid not to release public updates on his injuries.
Real Madrid respected his request and since then haven't released a report. Last October, he suffered another soleus injury. In December he has a hamstring strain too and trained apart from the group. On neither of these occasions was anyone briefed on what was going on and journalists were forced to rely on what they were told by Zidane at his press conferences.
That agreement looks to have ended, however, with news that Bale will miss the Super Cup or at least the semi-final against Valencia. The reasons for why it has been released are unknown or if it will last but it could be the fact that it is a specific competition and a long flight is needed to get to Saudi Arabia.