Gareth Bale moved to Los Angeles FC following his trophy-laden spell at Real Madrid in search of match fitness ahead of the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar, which kicks off in a fortnight.
However, Bale has featured only 12 times for the MLS side since joining in July, scoring twice, and has only managed two starts.
Worryingly, Bale has been non-existent for his side in the post-season; LA’s play-off campaign has been straightforward since claiming the Supporters' Shield but Bale missed out on a place on the bench for the Western Conference semi-finals against Los Angeles Galaxy and watched the subsequent final against Austin FC from the bench.
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He has been surplus to requirements for the most part with Carlos Vela, Cristian Arango and new signing Denis Bouanga excelling in the forward line.
The ex-Tottenham winger hasn’t set foot on the field since October 2 - when he played five minutes in the crucial league defeat of Portland Timbers. That was his only game time since arriving back from international duty in September.
Wales had two defeats to round off their UEFA Nations League campaign - against Belgium and Poland - with Bale playing less than half an hour against Belgium and starting in the 1-0 home loss to the Poles.
Bale has only managed 90 minutes twice thus far this calendar year - both for Wales - and has become less and less relevant as LA’s season reaches its conclusion.
While Bale starred in the World Cup qualification play-off semi-finals against Austria in March, it has become less certain as the year has gone on that he will be in optimum shape to lead his country when the Qatar tournament kicks off.
The initial reasoning behind Bale choosing LA for his next destination was that he could achieve and maintain his fitness ahead of Wales’ first World Cup since 1958 and thereby be in prime condition to captain the side on that historic occasion.
But his time in LA has been complicated by injury with the latest setback reported to be an adductor muscle complication. Bale - as mentioned - was available for the Austin game but it was reported in the LA press that trouble with his adductor meant he could not yet strike the ball with full force.
He was left out of the squad back in August due to “load management” and it is clear now that he won’t have achieved a single 90 minutes at club level by the time the World Cup kicks off. Given that Bale is Wales’ talisman and most important player, that might well have some fans concerned.
He struggled through the second half of his final Real Madrid season with back pain, playing around seven minutes of their Champions League-winning campaign in total and only appearing twice in La Liga outside of a three-game run at the start of the season when Carlo Ancelotti had a selection crisis.
Despite his patent lack of fitness, his signing caused a massive fuss in MLS circles with Bale’s No.11 LAFC shirt going on to become the best-selling MLS jersey for the 2022 season. But that initial hype has faded and quickly. LA fans knew the deal was always going to be on Bale’s terms but he has managed to undershoot even the most modest of expectations.
Having scored twice from the bench in his opening four matches, it appeared that Bale would find MLS easy terrain compared to the elite circles of European football. But that early promise has evaporated. Bale has instead found himself on familiar territory; the bench.
Bouanga - a summer signing from Saint-Etienne - took a designated player spot in the squad and has rapidly become a fans' favourite.
Arango, meanwhile, is the team’s focal point up front and denies Bale the chance of being deployed in the centre-forward role he prefers these days with Wales.
Vela, by contrast, is the team’s creative hub but likes to operate from the right but cut inside on the left foot. His game is far too similar to Bale’s for the two of them to play together and - as a verified club legend - Vela is always going to start even if Bale is fit.
The one upside for LAFC is they are not paying Bale too much for the privilege of putting him up. He is paid a basic $1.6million salary - a long, long way short of the reported £28million he was banking every season at Madrid.
He was willing to take such a pay-cut in order to have the right conditions ahead of the World Cup, ignoring the pleas of Cardiff City fans to pull on the jersey of his hometown club before jetting off to the Middle East.
But it would appear that Bale will be drastically short of match fitness by the time Wales’ first game - against the United States - rolls around on November 21.
How much that will impact Robert Page’s plans is not yet known. Bale is a guaranteed starter for Wales when fit and without him they might well lose that fear factor.
But leading his country at the World Cup is set to be a career highlight for the man who has won five Champions Leagues even if his attempts at warming up for the tournament hasn’t worked out as planned.
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