Chris Coleman: I'd Like to See Gareth Bale Stay at Real Madrid to Avoid Injuries

Wales manager Chris Coleman has advised star player Gareth Bale to stay at Real Madrid rather than move to the Premier League in order to maintain his fitness.

Per Richard Johnson of Sky Sports, Coleman said the key thing is Bale is happy where he is but, amid links to Manchester United, suggested he will be better off physically if he stays in La Liga:

"I'd like to see Gareth wherever he's going to be happy. If I'm going to be the Welsh manager for two more years, or four more years, I'd like to see him stay at Real Madrid.

"Okay, he's picked up a lot of injuries but generally the Premier League is much tougher than La Liga in terms of the physicality. It's very tough the Premier League. When he's happy he plays good football. When he comes to us and he's happy and we see an amazing player.

"If he's happy in Madrid fine. If not he should go and play somewhere where he is happy."

Bale, 28, will miss Wales' friendly with Panama in Cardiff on Tuesday due to a calf problem that has seen him sidelined since late September.

The knock meant Bale was also absent as Wales failed to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup during the last international break in October.

A succession of fitness problems have meant the former Tottenham Hotspur man has turned out for Real just 24 times in La Liga since the start of 2016-17 campaign, per WhoScored.com.

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In the meantime, Marco Asensio and Isco have both made themselves invaluable parts of manager Zinedine Zidane's Los Blancos squad, which is part of the reason Bale has been linked with a move away from the Santiago Bernabeu, per Johnson.

Clearly, though, Coleman believes Bale's injury troubles could be even worse if he returned to the physically demanding Premier League.