Aaron Ramsey: Wales braced for injury blow, but hope he can face Estonia

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Aaron RamseyImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Aaron Ramsey played 59 minutes of Juventus' draw against Udinese on Sunday, 22 August

International friendly: Finland v Wales

Venue: Olympic Stadium, Helsinki Date: Wednesday, 1 September Kick-off: 17:00 BST

Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio Wales MW & DAB, Radio Cymru DAB and online, plus live text and score updates on the BBC Sport website and app

Wales are braced for Aaron Ramsey to miss their first two matches in September due to injury, but hope to have the midfielder fit for their World Cup qualifier against Estonia.

Ramsey's club Juventus said he had a thigh muscle problem on Sunday and will have further tests in "10 days".

After a friendly with Finland on Wednesday, 1 September, Wales face Belarus in a qualifier four days later.

They then host Estonia at Cardiff City Stadium on Wednesday, 8 September.

Juventus said Ramsey, 30, had a "low-grade lesion of the adductor major muscle of the right thigh".

The Football Association of Wales' medics are speaking to the Italian club and will look at the possibility of Ramsey being available for the Estonia match.

Wales lost their opening game of the World Cup qualifying campaign away against Group E top seeds Belgium, but responded with a 1-0 home win over the Czech Republic.

Realistically, Robert Page's side will need to beat both Belarus and Estonia to keep alive their hopes of qualifying automatically for a first World Cup since 1958 by winning their group.

Page had expressed the hope that Ramsey and Real Madrid's Gareth Bale will be reunited for those games with both having featured for their clubs this season.

Ramsey started Juventus' opening Serie A match of the season, Sunday's 2-2 draw at Udinese, and Wales hope that is a sign of things to come after an injury-interrupted first two seasons in Italy for the former Arsenal player.

"They [Bale and Ramsey] are in good form coming into this camp, which is really pleasing for me and the Welsh supporters," said Page.

"We want our players playing competitive football week in and week out, no different for those two."

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