The Dragons will be without their talisman in Sunday's UEFA Nations League match.

Wales will be without talisman Gareth Bale when it hosts the Republic of Ireland in Tuesday's UEFA Nations League encounter. The 29-year-old winger failed to recover in time from his groin iinjury and has returned to Real Madrid to continue the recuperating process.

It's been so far a frustrating campaign for the ex-Tottenham Hotspur star whom, before his injury, was soaring in form for Real Madrid. The winger, who has already scored four goals in nine appearances for Los Blancos, was substituted off in the Madrid Derby at half-time after picking up a muscle injury. 

Bale seemingly aggravated his injury after he was given a runout in closing stages of Real's La Liga defeat at Alaves back in September. After initially being ruled out of Welsh squad for the international break, the former Spurs player had massive optimism to recover just in time.

Despite training with the rest of his teammate ahead of the friendly with Spain in Cardiff on Thursday, Bale was made to watch on from the dugout as his side suffered an agonizing 4-1 defeat. Manager of Wales Ryan Giggs, having initially maintained hopes of his star player making a return for the UNL tie away to the Republic of Ireland, admitted that he did not expect the forward to recover in time.

A post on the Welsh national team's Twitter account read: "Gareth Bale has returned to his club this afternoon and will not travel to Dublin with the rest of the squad."

Ipswich Town winger Gwion Edwards was called to join Wales' senior squad for the first time on Friday as the replacement for the Real Madrid winger.

Prior to the kick-off of Thursday's international friendly against Spain, Gareth Bale was awarded a golden boot in recognition of his record tally of 30 goals for his national team. A hat-trick in a 6-0 win over China in March took him past the 28 international goal tally of Liverpool's Ian Rush before subsequently scoring against the Republic of Ireland in the UNL in September.