Bale keen to move on

Bale was left nursing an ankle injury after a bad tackle by Liverpool midfielder Adam during the pre-season clash between the Premier League rivals in Baltimore.

The Wales international labelled Adam a coward straight after the incident, which came just over a year after another crude challenge from the Scot had sidelined him for three months. Bale has received no apology, while his criticism was labelled "outrageous" by Adam's agent.

Asked whether he held a grudge against Adam, Bale said on Sky Sports News: "People like that are not worth commenting on, to be honest. He knows what he's done wrong himself, so we'll just leave it."

Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas said: "The question is, at what point can you arrive in a friendly to let the ball go past you and go into a professional's ankle the way Charlie did?

"We responded the way we felt was appropriate, bearing in mind the fact there was no apology from Charlie to the challenge, no response from Liverpool - we don't expect any response, neither are we going to pressure them in any way."

Scans showed the problem was not as bad as first feared and Bale started against Red Bulls, heading home a 58th-minute equaliser to cancel out Kenny Cooper's early penalty for the host before new signing Gylfi Sigurdsson curled in a superb winner.

Bale was delighted to have made such a swift recovery.

"I only trained this morning," the 23-year-old said. "I knew I wanted to be fit for this game - there's not too many games left in pre-season and it's important to get some minutes on the pitch.

"I was a bit concerned going out before the game, but then again I wanted to get my fitness up quicker and get ready for the Premier League season."

Villas-Boas, meanwhile, said the club will make a decision on the future of wantaway Croatia playmaker Luka Modric when the team returns to England from the United States.

The Portuguese said: "Luka is now doing double sessions on his own in London. When we get back to London we'll give the players some time off. When we return to sessions we will decide what is best for Luka to do.

"He's a Tottenham player, obviously. He has to be in good mental condition to return to our training because his colleagues are at one level up in terms of preparation and fitness, so we'll have step on a programme for him which gradually brings him to the team, and gradually brings him to fitness level and eventually see what happens."