Gareth Bale close to making Real Madrid return

Gareth Bale is making excellent progress with his recovery and should be able to return to first team duties inthe next few days - bringing to an end over three months on the sidelines. The forward, who returned injured from international duty with Wales, completed part of Friday's training session with the rest of the squad - the final workout ahead of tomorrow's league meeting with Real Sociedad. He took part in light jogging and other drills with his team mates before spending the remainder of the session doing ballwork on his own.

Ancelotti left him out of the squad which will travel to San Sebastián but is hopeful that he will be available next week, when Madrid have games against Inter Milan in the Champions League (Tuesday 7th) followed by the derby against Atlético (Sunday 12th). "Bale was back working with the team this morning. He has not made the list, but next week he will be ready to play," the coach explained in this afternoon's press conference.

Bale returned to Madrid in the summer after spending a season on loan at Tottenham. Since then he has only played three games for Real Madrid - the first three league games of the campaign (he scored in the 3-3 draw against Levante in Week 2). He was in the starting line-up for all of those games but since then, he has been out with two injuries - both suffered while on international duty. His last game for Madrid was back on 28 August, against Betis at the Villamarín. He returned from the September international break with twinges then joined up with Wales for the November internationals without having featured for Madrid, and returned with a new injury.

During that time he has been in the news for other reasons. His agent Jonathan Barnett claimed that Madrid fans have treated the player appallingly. His comments did not go down well with the Real Madrid Supporters Group Federation who responded with a damning letter criticising the player and his agent for badmouthing the club and the fans.

Goalkeepers: Courtois, Lunin and Fuidias.

Defenders: Carvajal, Militao, Alaba, Vallejo, Nacho, Marcelo and Mendy.

Midfielders: Kroos, Modric, Casemiro, Valverde, Lucas Vázquez, Isco and Camavinga.

Forwards: Hazard, Benzema, Asensio, Jovic, Vinicius, Rodrygo and Mariano.