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Jose Mourinho has finally broken his silence on Gareth Bale's absence after the Welshman missed Tottenham's 5-4 defeat to Everton in the FA Cup on Wednesday night. The Spurs manager claimed the Real Madrid loanee "wasn't happy" with how he trained and made himself unavailable for the FA Cup clash.
Tottenham, who were away at Everton in the FA Cup last night, ended up getting knocked out of the domestic cup competition. Both teams went in with their strongest XI, but it was Carlo Ancelotti's side who managed to edge out Spurs.
Gareth Bale is yet to play a single match in February, with his last appearance being in Tottenham's 1-0 loss at Brighton and Hove Albion in January. Jose Mourinho, who has been dodging questions about the Welshman's absence for the past couple of weeks, finally broke his silence last night.
The manager was speaking to the media when he revealed that Gareth Bale went for a scan on Monday because of a muscle problem. Jose Mourinho said:
"Gareth is not on the bench because he wasn't happy with his training session yesterday. I wouldn't say an injury, not at all, but some feelings he wasn't happy with. So it was better for him to stay back and to be working with the sports science guys. Well I think it's better for me to say. So we played against West Bromwich on Sunday and he didn't play. On Monday I was a little bit surprised by him wanting to have a scan because he was not comfortable with some muscular area."
Mourinho further added in this regard:
"So he didn't train on Monday, and then on Tuesday he trained with the team, but I was informed that his desire would be to work with the sports science for a couple of days to strengthen that area. That's the reason why he's not here."
Gareth Bale at Tottenham under Jose Mourinho
Many pundits and fans felt Tottenham would be challenging for the Premier League title after Gareth Bale returned to the club last summer. The overall prediction was that the Welshman would add another dimension to the north London side's attack.
However, Gareth Bale has flattered to deceive, making just six Premier League appearances under Jose Mourinho. The Tottenham forward has scored just once in the league this season - the winner against Brighton back in November.
