Gareth Bale left out of Real Madrid squad again

Gareth Bale has been left out of the Real Madrid squad for their pre-season friendly with RB Salzburg.

Bale missed Real's trip to Germany for the Audi Cup last week after his proposed transfer to Chinese club Jiangsu Suning collapsed.

It is understood Bale skipped the trip as he was furious with his treatment at the hands of Real boss Zinedine Zidane and president Florentino Perez and felt he was not in the right frame of mind to play.

The Wales forward's future at the Bernabeu has been uncertain since Zidane returned to manage Real for a second time in March.

Bale and Zidane did not get on during the Frenchman's first spell between 2016 and 2018.

And Bale's agent Jonathan Barnett said last month: "It's simple, Zidane doesn't like Gareth.

"There's no relationship between them. There never has been."

Bale, 30, who signed from Tottenham in 2013 for a then-world record fee of £85million, has three years left on his Real contract.

With the Premier League transfer window closing at 5pm on Thursday there would appear little scope for Bale to return to England at this moment.

But the transfer window in Spain is open until September 2 and Bale could still leave Real in the next few weeks.

The future of James Rodriguez, who has spent the last two seasons on loan at Bayern Munich, is also uncertain as the Colombia playmaker was left out of Real's 20-man squad for Wednesday's game in Austria.