Gareth Bale unlikely to play against Crystal Palace

While answering questions about Gareth Bale following Tottenham Hotspur's friendly against Espanyol, manager Andre Villas-Boas indicated that Bale is unlikely to be fit to face Crystal Palace in the team's Premier League season opener at Selhurst Park. Bale has been out of action for three weeks and is still seeking treatment for a foot injury.

Here's what AVB had to say, with quotes from London 24.

"If we manage to recover the player, but obviously he is far far off fitness regarding what the others have done. It is three weeks since he played for Tottenham so I wouldn't expect him to play for us."

Despite all the links between Bale and Real Madrid, the club continue to insist that Bale has a very legitimate injury and there's no reason not to believe them. Bale was called into the Wales squad for mid-week international friendlies, and AVB spoke about that as well.

"He has been called up for his national team, our medical department is going to be in contact with the Wales medical department to make sure they have everything available in terms of giving information on how the player has been doing in these last weeks."

Don't expect to see Bale play for Wales, though if he does, it'll obviously be a sign that he his fit enough to compete against Palace. Hopefully his injury (and/or transfer) is sorted out shortly and he's back to training with Tottenham next week.