Toni Kroos has labelled Gareth Bale’s return to fitness coinciding with an international call-up as ‘inconvenient and untimely’.
The Welshman has not featured for Los Blancos since sustaining an injury on the last international break with his nation but has been called up for action for the games this month.
It is the latest in a long line of incidents which the Spanish media are reporting is causing a growing chasm between the forward and his current club.
There have been a series of incidents for which he has recently been criticised including leaving Madrid games early, failing to greet his teammates and also for a recent trip to London.
“Yes, it seems inconvenient and untimely to return from your national team, not playing with your club and then be in the right condition again when you have to return once more to the national team,” Kroos told German magazine Realtotal.de, as cited by Marca.
“The timing does not seem to be the best…but I hope he will be good again when he returns here and I am convinced that we will still need to have his quality for many matches this season.”
The German was then asked if Bale would continue at the club beyond the current season: “I do not know what will happen. He was about to leave in the summer.
“After something like that, it is not so easy to get back to normal, but I get the impression that he is very motivated to play for us.
“What will have bothered him most is to have returned from the national team.”
It is claimed that the player’s entourage is pressing Madrid into facilitating his departure and requesting that they listen to offers from suitors, including from China.
A report Marca earlier this week claimed Chinese Super League club Shanghai Shenhua will attempt to sign the Welshman in January.
The same outlet add that the relationship between Bale and Zinedine Zidane is essentially non-existent and the two are drifting further apart.
The Welshman was close to a move to the Far East this summer before Los Blancos president Florentino Perez vetoed the deal late on, with Madrid not being entitled to a transfer fee.
A separate report in ESPN FC from last month claimed the situation with the player and the club is now irreversible and the player has his heart set on a departure from the Spanish capital.
Earlier in October, Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague spoke on the BBC and wrote in Spanish news outlet Diario AS that the Welshman is angry with the situation he finds himself in and is now ready to walk out of the club.
It has been outlined that Bale was mystified by sitting out the recent Champions League clash against Club Brugge with no explanation, as he was totally fit and injury-free for the clash.
The 30-year-old had appeared to be returning to full form and fitness in the opening weeks of the campaign but is now said to be unhappy with his treatment by boss Zinedine Zidane and the club generally.
