'Forget about Bale and learn to win without him' says Giggs

Gareth Bale is set to miss Wales' vital clash with the Republic of Ireland this week, after returning to club side Real Madrid to recover from a tight groin and muscle fatigue. 

Wales have won just three competitive games without their talismanic forward since he made his national team debut 12 years ago, but they have the extra incentive to beat the Republic this week, as a win would take them top of their UEFA Nations League group. 

The team will also be without the experience of Aaron Ramsey, after the Arsenal man left the international squad tfor family reasons; his wife is expecting to give birth to twins. 

However national team boss Ryan Giggs is unperturbed by the withdrawals, telling the assembled media: " Any team will miss a player like Gareth. But it has happened before and it will happen in the future. I will give players chances and it is up to them to take them, to stop that record, prove people wrong. They can make that record a bit better with a victory here and we still have players who can make things happen."

Giggs was also keen to stress that Bale's withdrawal was not made to appease his club Real Madrid, but did admit that Bale will be fine to play for 'Los Blancos' this weekend, saying: "‘It was just a bit of fatigue. A cup final… potentially he could have played. But he just wasn’t right and we didn’t want to risk it being a bigger injury. He should be fine for this weekend."

Giggs continued: "He’s a miss but if we win we go top of the group, and that has been our aim since the start. It just shows the positivity of the Nations League. They are tight groups (if they lose they go bottom), really competitive, the teams are more or less equal. If we win it is in our hands to go on and top the group and get promoted."

Wales play the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on Tuesday evening.