Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has once again sent a signal to three of his players that he does not want them in his first team squad.

Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Mariano Diaz have all been left out of the Real Madrid squad set to play Red Bull Salzburg in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday night, as Zidane continues his efforts to slim down the first team squad.

Zidane's poor relationship with Bale is already well-publicized, with the coach saying earlier in pre-season that it would be "for the best" for both parties if Bale were to move on, with Bale's agent Jonathan Barnett calling the Frenchman a "disgrace" for his comments.

After a possible move to China fell through a week ago, Bale's only likely exit appears to be to the Premier League, but with the transfer market in England closing on Thursday night, time is fast running out to get a deal over the line.

James returned to training after the Copa America last week and after two seasons on loan with Bayern Munich it seemed briefly he would have a place in the coming season's first team squad.

However, with an overbooking of attacking midfielders, it now seems the club would rather cash in on the Colombian, who has been linked with interest from Napoli and Atletico Madrid.

Finally Mariano Diaz finds himself squeezed out just a year after returning to the club for 20 million euros (22.3 million U.S. dollars) from Olympique Lyon. The arrival of Luka Jovic means Mariano is also on the market after a season in which injuries limited him to 13 league appearances and three goals.

Real Madrid have so far had a disastrous pre-season with three defeats (including a 7-3 thrashing by Atletico Madrid) a draw and just one win, while injuries have also affected players such as Marco Asensio, Ferland Mendy and Brahim Diaz.

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