Gareth Bale injury update for Wales' World Cup play-off as fresh scare emerges

Gareth Bale has declared himself 100% fit to start Wales' crunch World Cup play-off semi-final this week despite suffering an injury scare.

The Wales skipper and record scorer was absent from Real Madrid 's 23-man squad against Barcelona on Sunday. Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti threw Bale's fitness into doubt after his side's 4-0 home defeat to Barca by saying the ace "didn't feel well."

Bale, 32, is understood to have missed two days' training with a back spasm but has reassured concerned team-mates and FAW staff that he will be ready to face Austria after linking up with the Wales squad. Robert Page's side face Austria in a one-legged play-off semi-final on Thursday in Cardiff. If they win, they will then take on either Scotland or Ukraine in the Welsh capital in June for a place at Qatar 2022.

Bale won his 100th cap for Wales in November against Belarus but had to come off at half-time with a calf injury. He has endured a tough season in Spain in the last of his nine-years in Madrid where his contract is up this summer.

Bale has played just 77 minutes of club football for the league leaders since featuring against Real Betis on August 28. A subsequent hamstring injury in September hindered him before injuring himself on his 100th Wales cap in November.

He has since only made one La Liga start in a 0-0 draw against Villarreal and a brief Champions League cameo as a sub away to Paris St Germain. But Bale is known to have had his eyes on this week's World Cup play-off ever since Wales set it up as he is desperate to represent his country on the biggest stage of all.

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The outcome of which will do much to determine his future with his contract up this summer and the golf-mad sportsman likely to spend more time on the fairways. The Real Madrid and Welsh ace was earlier this year confirmed as global ambassador for the R&A to help grow golf.

Bale joins Niall Horan and Modest! Golf in backing a drive to encourage more people into the game. Bale, a two-handicapper, said, "Golf is an amazing sport and it has always been an ambition of mine to encourage more people to take it up."

Bale's enthusiasm for golf has often been mocked by fans in Spain where injuries frequently kept the Real Madrid star away from the football pitch but not the putting green. His hobby also became the subject of a fan backlash when he posed with a banner reading 'Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that Order' after Wales qualified for Euro 2020.