Eden Hazard will play no part for Belgium against Wales on Tuesday night as Roberto Martinez has opted to leave his captain out of the squad, along with some other players.

Fellow Real Madrid teammate Thibaut Courtois is another of the players released from international duty early, and Martinez insists that the plan to do so was pre-established.

"The plan was always that, if we qualified for the World Cup, Hazard would only play one game," Martinez said. "We played him for an hour, and now he can focus on Real Madrid, given the schedule they have.

"It's important for him to play with Real Madrid to rediscover his rhythm. Playing for us was ideal to getting back to that."

Hazard has had a lot of fitness problems since joining Los Blancos from Chelsea in 2019, and Belgium teammate Axel Witsel joined in with Martinez's comments.

"He wasn't fit enough to play twice in three days," Witsel added, recognising the need to take care fo the captain.

Christian Benteke also came to the defence of Hazard, saying that his development as a player isn't unusual and that he still has quality despite his style having changed as a consequence of his injuries.