James Lawrence to miss Mexico and Czech Republic games
James Lawrence of Wales in training. Wales training session at the Vale Resort ahead of their UEFA Nations League match against Finland. 31st August 2020. Lewis Mitchell/YCPD.
Travel restrictions will force James Lawrence to miss Wales home games against Mexico and the Czech Republic.
The St. Pauli defender was named in Rob Page’s 31-man-squad as Wales begin their World Cup 2022 qualification campaign.
Cymru has now lost three defenders this week after Ben Davies and Tom Lockyer had to withdraw from the squad because of injury.
“We’ve got him for this first game and of course we’ve had two defenders go down, so we need as many defenders fit and rearing to go,” Page said.
“He is certainly one of them now, he’s playing which is great for us, but because of the protocols with Covid we wont have him again after this first game which is unfortunate.”
Wales is classified by Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) as ‘an area where prevalent COVID 19 variants would require a returning traveller to complete a federally mandated 14-day quarantine.’
Lawrence is still be available for tomorrows game against Belgium, as he would not need to isolate upon once returning to Germany.
As Belgium isn’t on RKI’s list he is permitted to travel straight from Germany to Brussels and meet up with the squad there.
The Dragons will only have one day of training in Wales before traveling across the North Sea to face the top-ranked nation at the Den Dreef Stadion on 24 March.
Embed from Getty ImagesLawrence has been a key player for the Boys in Brown as their form has improved since the new year.
St. Pauli have won eight of their last 11 games, including beating their bitter rivals Hamburg SV.
The Czech Republic will also be without their Bundesliga quartet from the fixture against Wales on 30 March at the Cardiff City Stadium.
Patrik Schick, Jiří Pavlenka, Vlademír Darida and Pavel Kadeřábek will only be permitted to travel to their qualifier in Estonia by private jet.
Since making his debut in November 2018, Lawrence has won seven Wales caps with his most recent coming in Wales’ 3-1 win over Finland at the Cardiff City Stadium.
In recent weeks the 28-year-old has worn the captain’s armband in the absence of Philipp Ziereis.
