Bale could face Monaco - AVB

Gareth Bale is expected to be back in training on Wednesday
28 July 2013

Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas has confirmed he expects Gareth Bale to be back in training on Wednesday and could be in line to face Monaco at the weekend.

Bale was again a spectator in Hong Kong as Tottenham recorded a 6-0 Barclays Asia Cup thrashing of South China.

The Welshman has failed to recover from a buttock injury, although conspiracy theorists point to the timing of his absence, which has coincided with intense speculation about a bid from Real Madrid.

Villas-Boas refused to discuss Bale's future on Saturday, however he insists the £80million-rated winger will be training again after Tottenham have returned to England.

"He is going to be fit to join the team for training on Wednesday," he said.

"There is a big possibility he could be fit for Monaco.

"He hasn't done any training with the team yet but in all of the pre-season friendlies we had before he was involved.

"We are confident he will be able to join us."

But, quizzed repeatedly about Bale's future, Villas-Boas fell back on the same phrase.

"I won't comment on anything. I am so sorry," he said. "I can't speak about speculation."

How long that situation lasts is open to debate.

Speculation will probably go on longer than the arguments over the surface, which Villas-Boas insisted was only playable due to the work of his own groundsman, Darren Baldwin.

In Hong Kong as a matter of course as Villas-Boas prefers to have his own groundsman look at every surface Spurs play on, Baldwin was supposed to return home on Thursday.

However, once it became obvious today's matches would not take place without some dramatic work following Wednesday's deluge, Baldwin stayed on.

"The game only went ahead because our groundsman did great work for the Premier League," he said.

"He deserves massive credit for allowing the tournament to continue. I hope the Premier League repay him in some way."

Manchester United have already cancelled their planned open training session on Sunday and with heavy rain falling during Manchester City's encounter with Sunderland, there is extreme doubt Monday's friendly with Kitchee FC will take place.

At least Jermain Defoe had a good night, netting a hat-trick after being selected as a lone front-man in the absence of an alternative, supported by Clint Dempsey.

"I enjoy playing in that position," said Defoe.

"The prospect of more strikers being brought in doesn't bother me. In fact I would welcome it because we needed one last season."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in