Anxious wait forWales as Bale is left out by Madrid

WALES boss Chris Coleman will be sweating over Gareth Bale’s fitness after his talisman was left out of Real Madrid’s La Liga clash with Espanyol yesterday with a calf injury.

With just four days until Wales’ crucial World Cup qualifier against Georgia, Coleman will be desperate to see Bale link up with the rest of the squad today.

Real boss Zinedine Zidane told Spanish media outlet AS on Saturday that the 28-year-old would be assessed on the day of the game and when the squad was published yesterday he confirmed that Bale would miss out on the game.

However, despite not being fit to play, Zidane was quick to play down the injury, insisting: “It’s a sprain, nothing serious.

“But as always, we don’t like taking any risks when players have minor injury problems.”

Despite picking up the strain in Real’s midweek 3-1 Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund – a game in which Bale scored a sensational volley – the Welsh star has been named in Coleman’s squad for the crunch qualifiers against Georgia and then Republic of Ireland.

Wales are currently second in Group D following wins over Austria and Moldova, but trail leaders Serbia by four points – meaning the playoffs look like their best chance of qualification.

Speaking about Bale linking up with Coleman and Wales, Zidane said: “If he has to join up with the Wales squad, he’ll go – I don’t think there’s any problems with Real Madrid and his national team.

“It’ll depend on how he responds, and that’s all. We’ll take it one day at a time.”

The injury comes on the back of a story published by AS that revealed that Bale has played just 57 per cent of available minutes of football since joining Real in 2013 - missing out on 9,346 minutes through injury.

The former Southampton and Tottenham product has suffered 11 different injuries during his four seasons in Spain, but he seems to have turned a corner this season – featuring in 72.62 per cent of the action ahead of the Espanyol game.