Chris Coleman adamant Gareth Bale circus will not affect Wales ahead of friendly with Republic of Ireland

Talk over the winger's future has dominated proceedings

Wales manager Chris Coleman during a training session at Dragon Park (PA)

Chris Coleman, the Wales manager, insists the attention surrounding Gareth Bale has not been a distraction ahead of the friendly against the Republic of Ireland.

All the build-up to the Cardiff City Stadium match has focused on the Tottenham winger, with Real Madrid reportedly ready to pay a world record transfer fee of up to £105m to secure his services.

Wales' open training on Monday in Newport was attended by a far greater number of fans and media than usual, with members of the Spanish press also in attendance.

The 24-year-old, who would only say, "I'm really sorry, now's not the time to talk", eventually trained on his own, and he will not feature against the Republic due to a foot injury.

"We've had a few more people here than usual – at training there were a lot of people there, I thought we had arrived at the wrong venue," Coleman said.

"There was all the hype surrounding Gareth and whether he will move or not, so there were a lot of people there who would not normally be there.

"But we have just got on with our work, we have to concentrate and he trained alone anyway so we just got on with our own preparations."

Coleman added: "He is not playing because physically he is not ready, not because he is not mentally ready."