With Gareth Bale expected to be on the bench for Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final against Bayern Munich, coach Zinedine Zidane dropped a clear hint that other big-name players in his stellar squad might follow the path of James Rodriguez and leave this summer.

Inevitably Zidane was quizzed on how he felt about letting James go last year on a two-season loan move to Bayern whose coach Jupp Heynckes hailed the Colombian’s growing influence. James is expected to start against Real with Heynckes saying that the midfielder had been left “depressed” by his departure from the Spanish giants.

“I took care of him, I had lot of talks with him and step by step he found confidence,” Heynckes said. “Our fans here, when they see him play football, they enjoy it. Above all he is a player who has fantasy, has an overview.”

There will be concern at Real at the damage a rejuvenated James might inflict on them but Zidane insisted: “I never had any problems with James. He just wanted to play more and I understood. This year will be the same - there are important players but they have to sit on the bench. This is the most difficult part of being a coach.”