Updated at 00.55
THIBAUT COURTOIS HAS seemingly hit out at Gareth Bale for not making more of an effort to fit in with his team-mates at Real Madrid.
The goalkeeper, signed from Chelsea in the summer, explained that his Welsh team-mate was one of just two players to miss a team dinner and claimed that Bale’s talent was often “blocked from shining”.
Former Tottenham winger Bale has been consistently linked with a move back to the Premier League and was not in the starting side as Madrid fell to a shock defeat against Girona on Sunday.
Team-mate Marcelo had previously stated that Bale, who moved to Madrid in 2013, still doesn’t speak Spanish, and Courtois has now hinted that Bale, who he says is known as “the golfer” to his team-mates, is not fitting in with the Spanish giants.
“It is very hard to describe Gareth in one word,” he told to Belgian media outlet HLN.
“I would say he has so much talent, but that it is such a shame that so often that talent is blocked from shining.”
Courtois added: “I live like somebody who is born and bred in Madrid. I eat late, I go bed late… it is their way of life.
“The other night we had a dinner with the entire squad.
But Bale and [Toni] Kroos did not turn up. They reckoned the dinner was too late at night.
“We had arranged to be in the restaurant at 9.30pm and we started out meal around 10.15pm and by midnight we were having coffee.
“We go to bed at around 1am. We have to train every morning at 11am. I think that is a perfect time.
“But Bale had told us: ‘I am not coming to join you, guys. I go to bed at 11.’”
Following Sunday’s result Madrid now sit nine points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona as the club enters a vital stretch of the season.
They are next in action against Levante on Sunday, with Madrid then facing the second leg of a Copa del Rey semi-final against Barcelona and a league Clasico three days later.
Murray Kinsella, Andy Dunne and Gavan Casey break down Ireland’s dogged win against Scotland in Murrayfield, and look at the room for improvement, in the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly.
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