Gareth Bale will be hoping to return to the Tottenham team on Sunday when they take on Leicester City in the final game of the 2020/21 Premier League season.
Starting more under Ryan Mason in the past few weeks after constantly finding himself in and out of the team under Jose Mourinho, the Welshman was named on the bench against Aston Villa as they lost 2-1 on home soil.
The attacker was introduced for the final 18 minutes of the contest, but he couldn't help Spurs get back into the game as they lost a crucial match in the race for a European spot.
Revealing in his pre-match interview with Sky Sports that Bale had told him that he felt it was best for him and his body that he didn't start, Mason now has a decision to make over whether or not he comes into the XI vs Leicester.
Asked when previewing the game at the King Power Stadium if Bale actually has one eye on his spot in the Wales team at Euro 2020, the interim head coach had his say on the situation and confirmed that the 31-year-old had in fact felt a problem with his quads during the win over Wolves a few days earlier.
"I completely disagree with that personally. I can only speak of my experience in the last five weeks with Gareth. He's scored four goals for this football club in that time. He's been excellent," he said in his pre-match press conference.
"Last weekend was the most minutes he's played in the Premier League all season, pushing close to 90 minutes. I think if you were to look at Gareth in that moment he looked fit, he looked strong, he was brave, he added a different dimension for us and he has quality as well. That spike in terms of the minutes played he felt his quad.
"In terms of him thinking about this summer, I don't believe so because he was out there the other night playing through some pain, playing through a problem he had for me, for himself and for the football club.
"In terms of Gareth's commitment, Gareth's quality, I think his commitment has been fully there in this moment I've been here.
"In terms of his quality, his quality is never going to leave him. I think you see that every time he's on the football pitch. "
Mason will once again be missing Ben Davies for Sunday's game against the FA Cup finalists, with the former midfielder also confirming that Japhet Tanganga will be unable to take part after coming off on a stretcher towards the end of the Villa match.
"Japhet and Ben are the only two at the moment," he added. "Japhet sustained a naughty ankle injury I think to his ligament so he won't feature at the weekend and hopefully it isn't too long for him out.
"Ben resumed some light training today so there the only two at the moment who aren't available for selection."
