Gareth Bale omitted from Real Madrid plans for Las Palmas visit and will not join up with Wales

Gareth Bale will not make his Real Madrid return at home to Las Palmas on Sunday (5 November) or join up with the Wales squad for their forthcoming friendly double-header against France and Panama, Zinedine Zidane has confirmed.

Bale recently missed both Champions League meetings with former club Tottenham Hotspur in addition to La Liga contests against Espanyol, Getafe, Eibar and Girona with a calf injury suffered during the 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund on 26 September.

Such an issue also crucially left him unable to help his native Wales end their 60-year World Cup drought as they claimed only three points from a final pair of qualifiers against Georgia and the Republic of Ireland to miss out on a play-off berth in Group D.

Bale finally returned to full first-team training on Friday morning and, while it always seemed incredibly unlikely that he would be in any position to start against Las Palmas, it was reported that he would be part of the matchday 18 if he came through another session on Saturday unscathed.

He was also named in the latest Wales squad earlier this week, although Chris Coleman stressed that Real would have the final say on his involvement against France and Panama.

Zidane has now confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Bale, despite training again as planned on Saturday, will not play any part for Real or Wales over the coming days. Instead, he is set to remain in Madrid and continue getting back up to speed ahead of the Madrid derby against Atletico on 18 November.

It's the same story for Dani Carvajal, who also trained on Friday and Saturday after battling a viral pericardium infection. The right-back was not scheduled to feature for Spain against either Costa Rica or Russia.

"Gareth has not been called for us [against Las Palmas]," Zidane told reporters, per Marca. "He won't be in the squad and won't go with his country next week. He has now completed two training sessions and what we want is for him to stay with us so that he can be back for Madrid as soon as possible."

Central defender Raphael Varane worked out indoors on Saturday, while first-choice goalkeeper Keylor Navas and Luca Zidane were said to have "continued with their respective recovery programmes". Mateo Kovacic completed some running exercises outside and Zidane is hopeful that the Croatian midfielder will be back next week.

"We're happy that the two [Bale and Carvajal] will return but we also need Kovacic but I think he'll be back next week," he added. "Carvajal is fine and Bale has also taken part in his second session so it is just a normal process now but Dani must be given the necessary peace of mind."

Real welcome struggling Canary Islanders Las Palmas to the Santiago Bernabeu in low spirits after slipping eight points behind undefeated La Liga leaders Barcelona last weekend courtesy of a shock defeat to newly-promoted Girona. The reigning European and Spanish champions were then beaten 3-1 by Spurs at Wembley Stadium on Wednesday.

In response to those back-to-back losses, Diario AS suggest that Zidane could make several changes to his squad this weekend in order to provide an injection of fresh energy. The publication claims that Theo Hernandez, Marcos Llorente, Dani Ceballos and Marco Asensio are all in line to start, with the established quartet of Marcelo, Casemiro, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric set to be rested.