Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale will start the Champions League final against Juventus in Cardiff on Saturday night on the bench, according to Guillem Balague.
The Welshman has been struggling with injury and fitness problems for most of the campaign, and he has been in a race against time to be fit to feature for Los Blancos in his hometown in the season finale.
However, it sounds as though he’s now lost that battle and will have to be content with a place on the sidelines to start with as Isco will instead start the game for Zinedine Zidane’s side, as noted by Balague in the tweet below.
Gareth Bale will be on the bench. Isco will start. Four man midfield for Real Madrid was preferred by key members of squad pic.twitter.com/zauZDHWjt8
— Guillem Balague (@GuillemBalague) June 3, 2017
While he didn’t go into the ramifications of the decision or the situation Bale finds himself in moving forward, it has been heavily reported all week that the former Tottenham man would alert Manchester United if he was indeed left on the bench.
As per Mundo Deportivo, it was suggested that if the 27-year-old didn’t start, it would give the Red Devils more hope than ever that they could potentially complete a big-money move this summer.
The first part of that theory has now come to fruition, now it just remains to be seen whether or not it has an affect on Bale’s long-term future with Jose Mourinho undoubtedly in the market to add another marquee signing to his squad this summer.