MOURINHO: Bale still has hunger to play

JOSE MOURINHO admits Gareth Bale is not happy stuck on the bench, but claims the Welshman is pleased to be back at Tottenham and retains an appetite for football. Bale has started only once in the Premier League since returning on loan from Real Madrid and has played just 45 minutes in the competition since November. Even with Steven Bergwijn and Giovani Lo Celso out against Fulham on Wednesday, Mourinho opted for Moussa Sissoko ahead of Bale on the right wing and did not send him on as he searched for a winner. But the Spurs boss said: ‘I see him every day and he is really happy. His interaction in the group is amazing. He’s a nice and happy guy. Is he happy when he sits on the bench? I honestly don’t think so. ‘I do think he has an appetite to play football because when a player wants to play at Marine after one training session, after three weeks of injury — that can only show a person who loves to play football.’ Mourinho says there have been no talks over what will happen at the end of Bale’s loan and the reasons he had failed to sparkle so far were ‘complex’. The 31-year-old Wales star arrived in October with an injury and suffered another problem just before Christmas in the Carabao Cup quarter-final against Stoke. ‘Coming back now is not an easy process,’ said Mourinho. ‘Everybody knew the past couple of seasons in Madrid were not easy for him, so let’s go step by step and try to get the best out of him. ‘Gareth is on loan until the end of the season,’ he added. ‘There has not even been a second of discussion about what happens after that.’