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Welsh superstar Gareth Bale is set to be absent for Real Madrid when they take on Liverpool in the Champions League at Anfield on Wednesday.
The world's most expensive player did not feature in Real's 5-0 weekend victory over Levante and Bale could yet be forced to sit out El Clasico against Barcelona next weekend.
French duo Karim Benzema, Raphael Varane also missed the game in Valencia due to illness, with Spain defender Sergio Ramos missing out due to a calf injury.
Head coach Carlo Ancelotti hopes to have Benzema, Varane and Ramos available for the trip to Merseyside, but Bale will almost certainly miss out because of a gluteal muscle problem sustained while on international duty with Wales.
Ancelotti confirmed after the win over Levante: "He had a problem in his glute.
"He wasn't comfortable, so we preferred to not risk it for this game and we will evaluate it in the next few days. He wasn't left out due to rotation.
"We now have a few days to evaluate the situation with Bale, Karim Benzema, Raphael Varane, Sergio Ramos and all those that were out for this game.
"I think we are arriving well into this week. We had a difficult game to prepare here, but we played very well and seriously. We were very concentrated and it all went well.
"Now we have time to, firstly, recover some players and then think about the game on Wednesday."
Real last faced Liverpool in 2025-09, when the Reds romped to a 5-0 aggregate success in the first knockout round, before losing out to Chelsea in the quarter-finals.
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