Wales without several key players ahead of World Cup Qualifiers
Cardiff, Wales. 5th June 2021. Keiffer Moore of Wales in action Wales v Albania friendly at the Cardiff City Stadium on the 5th June 2021. Credit: Lewis Mitchell/YCPD.
Wales manager Rob Page will be without several key players ahead of the upcoming World Cup Qualifiers. A combination of injuries and visa issues mean Page will be without key players during the international window.
Defenders Joe Rodon and Neco Williams have both pulled out the squad with injuries. QPR midfielder George Thomas and Aaron Ramsey have also left the squad due to injury. In their place Page has called up Swansea City’s Brandon Cooper, Cardiff City’s Mark Harris. Both players are yet to make their senior debuts but are both highly rated prospects at their clubs. Cooper has made six appearance’s in league and cup for Swansea, while Harris has four for Cardiff.
Recent Bolton signing and former Newport County star Josh Sheehan and Hearts’ Ben Woodburn are also called up to the squad. Sheehan made his debut in a goalless friendly against the USA in November 2020 has two caps for his country. Woodburn has ten caps and two goals scoring the winner on his debut against Austria in September 2017.
Wales will play Belarus on September 5th in Kazan, Russia and will miss three players due to visa issues. Tyler Roberts, Ethan Ampadu along with Brendan Cooper were unable to get approval for visa’s to enter Russia for the game against Belarus. It is expected that the three will be available to face Estonia on September 8th in Cardiff.
Rob Page had voiced concerns of UEFA’s decision to play the Belarus in Russia. Nations from the EU and UK are not permitted to enter Belarus due to sanctions by the government. The Wales manager branded the deicision to play in Kazan as “crazy”, saying,
“First and foremost we sympathise with the Belarussians, absolutely,
“But UEFA have decided on Kazan and organising it from a financial and logistical point of view is a nightmare.
“The players will only be aware of it because of the bio-mechanic tests that we’ve got to do.
“We’ve got to get them organised to go to different parts of the UK to get their fingerprints done and get tested.
“We’ve had to pick a larger squad because of the visas, they’ve to be submitted three weeks before we go – which again is crazy.
“But UEFA have decided and we have to get on with it. We tried to appeal but were shot down straight away.”
Wales will face a near 5000 mile round trip from Cardiff for the game. Wales also faced lots of travel during the Euro’s and Page believes it did have an impact,
“You look at the format of the Euros and the travelling involved there,” Page said.
“If I’d said it during the Euros it would have sounded like sour grapes, so I didn’t want to say it then.
“But in hindsight, it’s no coincidence that teams who got further had less travelling.
“We put up with it and did it and gave it our best but, looking back, of course it had an impact.”
Wales sit third in Group E with three points from their two games, one point behind second-placed Czech Republic.
