Bale in contention to face Red Bulls
Soccer:Gareth Bale is in contention to feature for Tottenham Hotspur against New York Red Bulls after a rapid recovering from an ankle injury sustained in a tackle from Liverpool’s Charlie Adam at the weekend.
After publicly criticising Adam for the challenge in the 0-0 pre-season draw on Saturday, Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas says it is time to move on, now that it has been confirmed Bale did not suffered serious repercussions and might even feature in Tuesday night's clash in New York.
"Hopefully we will try to get some minutes into him," said Villas-Boas. "Obviously we had intended that Gareth had some workload spread during this American tour, and that was cut short the other day.
"Hopefully if everything is okay he will be in condition to play."
Bale branded Adam a "little bit of a coward" after the game and said he received no apology.
Villas-Boas says Bale's comments were made in the heat of the moment and he would like to move on from the issue, although he believes Adam should apologise.
"It's Gareth speaking and he felt a bit strongly after the match, bearing in mind that the player didn't go to him to apologise for what was considered maybe a difficult and nasty challenge," explained Villas-Boas. "In my opinion the matter is dealt with.
“It would be extremely human for Charlie to come out with an apology but you can't force people to say anything and we just have to wait and see."
Adam's agent Kenny Moyes, however, says the Spurs criticism has been "outrageous".
"It doesn't warrant a reply, because everyone knows Charlie is not that type of player," he said. "Everyone in football knows he has no malice or anything like that in him. For someone to have a go like that is outrageous. It was schoolboyish for them to come out and say that."
