Wales forward Gareth Bale has been left out of Real Madrid’s 24-man squad for the Champions League last-16 second-leg tie against Manchester City on Friday.
City won 2-1 in the first leg in Spain in February before the coronavirus pandemic caused the competition to be halted for almost five months.
Bale, 31, has played twice, with only one start, in 11 Real games since football in Spain restarted in June.
The winners of the tie will play either Lyon or Juventus in the quarter-finals.
All the games in the Champions League from the last eight onwards will be played in Portugal over a 12-day period from 12 August with the final on 23 August.
Bale joined Real in a then-world record transfer of £85m from Tottenham in September 2013. He has helped the Spanish champions win the Champions League on four occasions, scoring in the 2014 final against Atletico Madrid, converting a penalty in the shootout against the same side in 2016 and netting twice against Liverpool, including a spectacular bicycle kick, in 2018.
Last summer he was set to move to Chinese Super League club Jiangsu Suning in a deal worth a reported £1m a week. However, the move fell through when Real Madrid demanded a fee for Bale.
The forward has only started 14 games in all competitions in 2019-20 and looked disinterested in recent weeks, including pretending to be asleep as a substitute as Real went on a 10-game winning run to become Spanish champions.
Latest Stories
-
Shamima Muslim urges youth to lead Ghana’s renewal at 18Plus4NDC anniversary
23 minutes -
Akufo-Addo condemns post-election violence, blames NDC
31 minutes -
DAMC, Free Food Company, to distribute 10,000 packs of food to street kids
2 hours -
Kwame Boafo Akuffo: Court ruling on re-collation flawed
2 hours -
Samuel Yaw Adusei: The strategist behind NDC’s electoral security in Ashanti region
2 hours -
I’m confident posterity will judge my performance well – Akufo-Addo
2 hours -
Syria’s minorities seek security as country charts new future
3 hours -
Prof. Nana Aba Appiah Amfo re-appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana
3 hours -
German police probe market attack security and warnings
3 hours -
Grief and anger in Magdeburg after Christmas market attack
3 hours -
Baltasar Coin becomes first Ghanaian meme coin to hit DEX Screener at $100K market cap
4 hours -
EC blames re-collation of disputed results on widespread lawlessness by party supporters
4 hours -
Top 20 Ghanaian songs released in 2024
5 hours -
Beating Messi’s Inter Miami to MLS Cup feels amazing – Joseph Paintsil
5 hours -
NDC administration will reverse all ‘last-minute’ gov’t employee promotions – Asiedu Nketiah
5 hours