Gareth Bale reveals a major factor in why he retired from football

Martin Macdonald

• 6 Mar 2026 06:30 CST
• 3 min read

News

Gareth Bale has confirmed that he lived with a major back injury his entire professional career which often led to spells on the sidelines.

The Welshman is one of the most decorated footballers of all time and at Real Madrid won three La Liga titles, one Copa del Rey, two UEFA Super Cups, three FIFA Club World Cups and, most impressively, five Champions League titles.

He wasn't always popular with the Madrid fans, though, as niggling injuries meant he wasn't always available, while his dedication was called into question.

Bale has revealed that his career of niggling injuries stems from a disc injury in his back suffered when he was just 18.

"I tore my disc in my back when I was 18 at Tottenham," he said on The Overlap.

"I played my whole career with that. I had a lot of calf injuries which was due to my back. I never came out and said this when I was playing because some people would say: 'He's making excuses'. It was manageable but over time it caught up with me.

"I never knew when it would come, and obviously people were like: 'Oh, he doesn't look after himself' [but] I would literally make sure my calves and soleus were bulletproof. But again, if it misfires and it goes, there's nothing I could do about it. I'd have an injection in my back to calm it all down."

A lot of Bale's contemporaries, like former Madrid team-mates Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, are playing into their late 30s and early 40s, while he opted to retire at just 33 years old.

He says his career got to a point where he asked himself why he was still playing.

"I always got to a point where I guess a lot of people do in their career, do you keep going for what reason? What else do I want to achieve?" the former Tottenham star added.

"I felt like I achieved everything I wanted to. The last thing I did was qualify for a World Cup, which was the one thing that was last on my list. I felt it was the right time. It was a few years prior that I was probably ready but it just caught up with me."

Over his career, Bale played for Southampton, Tottenham, Real Madrid and Los Angeles FC, while he was the talisman for his beloved Wales

When he did retire, accusations were levelled at Bale that he didn't have a true love for football, but he has revealed that he partly made the decision due to family reasons.

“My dad got ill and that played a massive role in my decision," he confirmed to GQ in 2025.

"People don't know what anyone's going through at home but I soon realised there's more to life than just football.”

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