Gareth Bale: I had to take painkillers

Real Madrid winger Gareth Bale has revealed he had 'take a lot of painkillers' to play last season. 

Bale was nursing an ankle injury but should have shown more patience but got frustrated and took painkillers to get back in the pitch. 

“When you’ve been injured for three months it’s hard to sit out extra time,” Bale told an interview with El Pais.

“Of course it’s easy to say that I should have rested more but when you see your teammates playing in many important matches, it’s tough to sit it out.

“To play I had to take a lot of painkillers... maybe on reflection I should have taken more time to recover.

“That would have allowed me to play much better and to do things I couldn’t do due to the pain in my ankle.”