Gareth Bale has moved into fifth gear. The Welshman is taking full advantage of the lack of international games this week to fine-tune his fitness. He stayed on after yesterday's team training session to work on his speed with one of Ancelotti's assistants.

The Welshman looks after himself as much as anyone does. He knows he needs to feel fully fit in order to play to his full potential and he loves taking extra training sessions whenever he finds the time. Having not taken part in pre-season, he is also very aware that he needs to train more in order to be on par with his teammates. For Bale, the most important thing is that he feels increasingly more confident. He is featuring in almost every game without any niggling muscle pains and he aims to continue improving as Real enters the business end of the season.

Bale has left his injury woes in the past. His last setback came early this year, when he suffered a relapse of his ankle injury against Granada. Then, just as he looked poised to make his comeback against Atlético in the cup, he dropped out of the squad and was sidelined until the next league game against Villarreal.

Since then, Bale has come on in leaps and bounds. Ancelotti has given him more playing time and his partnership with Cristiano and Benzema has flourished. The former Tottenham man has already racked up 14 goals - 10 of these in the league - and 10 assists this season.