Tottenham Hotspur journalist Alasdair Gold has been discussing the fitness of on-loan Spurs winger Gareth Bale.
This comes after Gold recently shared a video on his YouTube channel where he spoke about a range on topics concerning the north London club.
On the topic of Bale, Gold had this to say on what he thinks is the main issue surrounding the Welshman.
He said: “I think for him, the fitness thing is going to be a little bit of an issue in terms of he won’t be able to combine what he wants to do in an attacking sense, with what [Jose] Mourinho wants him to do in a defensive sense.
“He’s still not really able to track back too much and there’s this thing – I don’t know if you all get this, certainly with Kane – when you see Kane go down, you’re all like, ‘please don’t be injured,’ and I think I’m really still feeling that with Bale.
“It’s maybe it’s just because of the injury problems he’s had in recent years, every time he goes down, you’re thinking ‘please get up’.
“But he admitted after the game [against LASK] that he was feeling quite stiff in his muscles and stuff and he’s not there fitness-wise yet and that will come, but I think there are enough little flashes to see what a quality player he still is.
“He just needs to just keep working on the fitness.”
The winger first joined Spurs back in 2007 from fellow Premier League club Southampton for £13.23 million (per Transfermarkt).
During his first spell at Spurs, Bale made a total of 203 appearances for the Lilywhites, in which he scored 56 goals and provided 58 assists along the way.
In 2013, Bale signed to Real Madrid for what was a world-record fee. During his time at the Spanish club, Bale made 251 appearances across all competitions, in which he racked up a total of 105 goals and 68 assists, winning a plethora of trophies too.
Bale, who is currently valued at £22.5 million, then returned to the north London club on a season-long loan deal from Real last month but missed the start of the season due to a knee problem.
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TIF Thoughts on Alasdair Gold’s comments on Bale and his fitness…
Given how Bale is yet to play a full 90 minutes for Tottenham so far this season, this shows that he may not necessarily be at full fitness at this moment in time.
Hopefully, as the season goes on, Bale can build his fitness up and play many minutes for Jose Mourinho’s side and become an important player in the squad.