Gareth Bale, long-term injured

Gareth Bale, in a file image SERGIO PEREZ / Reuters

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Gareth Bale could not feel worse returning to the Santiago Bernabéu.

A week ago, in training prior to the game against Celta held at the white stadium, the Welshman withdrew with a strong discomfort in the right ischium and this Saturday it was known that the loss will be long-term.

La

coded this period eight to ten weeks, although official sources of the club avoid giving specific deadlines and only refer to an absence of "long -

term".

More information

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• Gareth Bale's Welsh Paradox

It all happened the day before Real Madrid returned to the Bernabéu a year and a half later. In the run-up to the meeting, the club organized the last preparatory session in the merengue venue as an appetizer upon returning to the stadium. How the public would receive him was one of the unknowns after in his first seven seasons in the capital of Spain he was whistled by the stands on numerous occasions. However, halfway through training he retired to the locker room, he was ruled out almost instantly for the clash against the Vigo players the next day and now it is known that his fall is considerable.

Until this serious mishap, the 32-year-old Welshman had started the first three league matches, against Alavés, Levante and Betis. He even scored the first goal for the Ciutat de València. He was the only novelty in a white attack that ended last season with the feeling that it needed new arguments. However, after the Mbappé soap opera ended, the only offensive novelty ended up being him, an old face that had already been written off in Concha Espina. When he left for Tottenham in the summer of 2020, practically no one was counting on his return, but neither the

nor any other club were interested in a player who comes from exhibiting dwindling football and has a high record.

So Carlo Ancelotti, with whom he performed at a good level in his first two courses at Madrid, applied his classic pragmatism and set to work to squeeze out all the juice that was still in the Welshman's boots in his last season with a contract at Valdebebas. He gave him a clue from the beginning and the left-hander, within his solo game and all his comings and goings throughout a meeting, did not ignore the world. In the premiere in Mendizorroza he was active, against Levante he scored 0-1 and in Villamarín he went more on tiptoe. Along with Benzema he was a fixture in the attack and, when the Italian coach decided to put an effervescent Vinicius in the eleven, the discarded was Hazard. This is how the first national team break was reached. However, on his return, when he had to reconnect with the Bernabéu public, his physique broke down.

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