Jose Mourinho confident Gareth Bale will soon show his best form for Tottenham

Jose Mourinho believes Gareth Bale is ready to show he is back to his best when he starts Tottenham’s Europa League game against Royal Antwerp on Thursday.

The Welshman has had to bide his time following his return to north London last month, with a knee injury delaying his introduction to Mourinho’s side. He made his second full debut against LASK last week, and looked well off the pace, but Mourinho says Bale is now reaching peak condition.

“Bale is playing and we all have not just the feeling, but also the data that Bale is arriving,” Mourinho said.

“He is working very hard. He is being quite a great example for everybody. A big guy like him, travelled to Burnley, stayed on the bench for 90 minutes, didn’t play one minute.

“His behaviour as a team guy is incredible. His behaviour as a Tottenham man is remarkable, and he is coming. I can see just with my eyes, but then the scientific data is also coming, and he is working very well. He is improving, he is improving a lot and I think we can see already Gareth at a good level and hopefully he can fly because he is working very hard. So he’s playing.”

Bale fell out of favour with Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane and faced questions about his commitment to the club. But Mourinho insists that is not an accurate reflection of the player he has encountered.

“I can only speak about him with us. And him with us: amazing. Of course, he arrived injured,” Mourinho added.

“Of course, when you are injured for such a long time, it takes a little bit of time. We are giving him that time. He is working very hard.

“I think he is very pleased with the level of organisation we have in the club.

“Probably, he is not used to it. But the way we work between coaching staff, medical staff, sports science area, we are providing all the best conditions for his evolution.

“He was on the bench, he played some minutes, he started a match, he was on the bench, he is starting tomorrow again, and we are giving him time.

“But again I repeat what I told before: he is in a better place than he was a couple of weeks ago. He is arriving.”

Mourinho has confirmed that there will be other changes to his side, with a number of players rested from Monday night. Eric Dier and Tanguy Ndombele have not travelled to Belgium as they are rested with Sunday’s game with Brighton in mind.