Real insist there is no slip-up in Bale’s injury-hit Bernabeu career

Real Madrid have denied reports Gareth Bale has a slipped disc.

A Spanish newspaper claimed the world-record signing from Tottenham had suffered the injury and could require surgery, but the club insisted this was “completely false”.

Real said in a statement: “In response to the information regarding the player Gareth Bale, Real Madrid would like to state the following:

1. The information published, claiming that the player has a slipped disc on the L5-S1 vertebrae and a bulge on two others, is completely false.

2. The player does not have a slipped disc, as the club’s medical services stated clearly to the newspaper before the information was published.

3. The player Gareth Bale has a small chronic disc bulge, which is extremely common among football players and by no means prevents him from carrying out his professional activity normally.”

Bale has been troubled by injury since his summer move to Spain. The Welshman has started just once match for Madrid, his debut against Villarreal in which he scored back on September 14.

He has made just two more substitute appearances, one in La Liga and one in the Champions League, with the last of those coming in the league defeat to Atletico Madrid on September 28.

He also sat out the Wales World Cup qualifiers against Macedonia and Belgium one of eight players to pull out of Chris Coleman’s squad.

But there was some good news for him last week, when he was named Wales Footballer of the Year for the third time.

Bale, who earlier this year won the Professional Fooballers’ Association and Football Writers’ Association Player of the Year awards, scored 26 goals in all competitions for Tottenham and has been a rare beacon of light for Wales during a disappointing World Cup campaign.

The award, announced as part of a ceremony at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff, moves him level with fellow three-time winners John Hartson and Mark Hughes. Bale also received the Fans’ Player of the Year award, and Wales boss Chris Coleman had nothing but praise for his star man.

He said: “Gareth’s one of the best players I’ve seen. I’ve had the fortune of being up close and personal with him in training and he’s a player that can take your breath away.

“In two or three seconds, he will do something that nobody else can do. He’s a special player. He’s serious about Wales, he’s a Cardiff boy and patriotic and what he does for Welsh football is raise the interest in football for our country. He’s brought that for us.”