Gareth Bale has seemingly stepped aside for the Champions League final - is his Real Madrid future now on the line?

In admitting that he is not fit enough for Saturday's final, Bale looks set to start on the bench. The implications of this could be huge as Real prepares for another summer of spending

Gareth Bale admitted ahead of Saturday's final he is not '100% fit' (Getty)

It was building up to be a hugely difficult decision for Zinedine Zidane, and one that could have made or broken a career-defining night for Gareth Bale, only for the Real Madrid record signing to make it very easy for his manager.

Amid so much debate about whether he or Isco will start for Real Madrid in their Champions League final against Juventus in Cardiff, the 27-year-old took matters into his own hands, by taking time to explain how bad his ankle still is.

“I am not 100 per cent. I haven’t played for six or seven weeks. I obviously had my operation which still really hasn’t recovered,” Bale said, on Real’s pre-final media day. “If I’m called upon to start, I will start obviously. But to last 90 minutes. I haven’t played a lot of football this year since my operation, so that would be difficult. Isco has been playing fantastically well for us, at the end of the season, so whatever the manager decides, I will [accept it].”

Given those very comments and how he went on to speak about the pain he's been suffering, however, the decision is surely to start Bale on the bench in his home country? It could have been a lot more complicated for Zidane this week, even if it could still leave a few complications in the summer.

The major issue beyond Saturday’s showpiece at the Principality Stadium is that Bale remains president Florentino Perez’s major modern signing, and one of his favoured players. The Bernabeu supremo likes seeing him on the pitch, and enjoys the devastatingly pure pace and power to his game.

Perez feels that Bale embodies the kind of individual brilliance that Real’s history has been built on, but that isn’t necessarily the individual brilliance that the current team's run to the final has been built on.

Bale has the backing of president Perez (Getty)

There is little doubt Isco’s more poised game has given Real much more of a balance, and just made all those individual parts fit so much better. A team that had constantly been so unconvincing despite its quality all of a sudden looked so complete, especially in the last two Champions League ties against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid. It gave Zidane a huge dilemma ahead of the last and biggest game of the season, and one that many around the Bernabeu believed could define him as a manager.

Would he do what was evidently best for the team and pick Isco, or do what felt implicitly political and pick Bale, especially given all the drama and symbolism of this match being played in Wales. This is how it was meant to be, after all: the record signing going back home to emphasise how the Bernabeu is the European Cup’s home, by helping them becoming the first club to retain it in the modern Champions League era.

“It is massively special for me personally, as it is where I was born, where I grew up,” Bale added this week. “Any Champions League final is special, but this is a little bit extra special.”

That would have been very tough to resist, and required almighty resolve from Zidane. Now, it is barely a dilemma at all. Whether intentional or not, Bale has made it very easy to be left out.

It would now be a huge surprise if he didn’t start this home final on the bench. The ripple effect of that, however, could be to bring Bale’s time at the Bernabeu to a close. As reported by The Independent in early May, Perez wants to keep the Welsh star, but there are a few among the Bernabeu hierarchy that are suggesting a sale might not be the worst idea and it was not a coincidence that a comment piece appeared in Marca on Monday suggesting exactly that.

Bale's future at Real is far from clear (Getty)

The bottom line is that if Real do win on Saturday to return to Europe’s peak, but without Bale in the starting XI, that will be a much easier sell. It is a prospect that has already been discussed between Bernabeu officials and those from Manchester United.

There is another prospect from this final, however, that could prove just as influential. Some close to Zidane’s squad feel it is highly likely that Bale will come on as a sub, especially if the game is as tight and tough as Juventus’ famed defence suggests it will be. It could then become a contest when the Welsh star’s individual brilliance from the bench is essential.

That could well mean that, even if the final does not go as Bale or so many of his Welsh supporters had imagined, it could yet exceed expectation and become an even greater home-coming story.

It would be foolish to write him off. He’s been in similar situations and prevailed, such as in the 2014 final when he hit the goal against Atletico that finally put Real ahead to eventually win 4-1, even if the surroundings have never been as familiar as the Millennium Stadium.

So much intrigue will begin with Zidane's decision, but Bale has gone some way to finalising it. After that is when matter gets far more interesting.