Real Madrid v Valencia preview: Gareth Bale ruled out through injury
Sunday 8 May 2016 16:00, UK
Real Madrid forward Gareth Bale has been ruled out of Sunday's crucial La Liga game with Valencia with a knee sprain.
Real are one point behind leaders Barcelona in the title race and the news that Bale is out of the penultimate league game of the season is a blow to their hopes of keeping up the momentum over their bitter rivals.
The Wales international was instrumental in Real's 1-0 win over Manchester City on Wednesday that sent them into the Champions League final.
Injuries have limited Bale to just 20 league starts out of Real's 36 games this season, although he has still managed to score 19 times.
It is the fifth injury Bale has sustained this campaign, including two separate calf problems which caused him to miss eight games from January to March and four from October to November.
Real will be aiming to continue their incredible run of form. Ten consecutive wins have dragged Los Blancos back into the title race and they sit just a point behind the top two. Atletico are level on points with Barca at the summit, but trail them on head-to-head record.
Casemiro and Karim Benzema, who missed the game with City through injury, were able to take part in training on Friday and are expected to be fit while Danilo and Raphael Varane are both pushing for returns.
Valencia have a habit of interrupting Real's title bids in recent seasons and Pako Ayestaran is expected to have Enzo Perez, Paco Alcacer and Aymen Abdennour back in contention after they missed out in the 2-0 defeat against Villarreal last weekend.
Santi Mina is expected to take Denis Cheryshev's place in the starting line-up after due to his ineligibility against his parent club.
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