Aaron Ramsey: Juventus midfielder one of five injury withdrawals from Wales squad
- Published
Aaron Ramsey played in all four of Wales games at the summer's Euro 2020 finals
International friendly: Finland v Wales |
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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 |
Juventus midfielder Aaron Ramsey has withdrawn injured from the Wales squad before Wednesday's friendly against Finland and two World Cup qualifiers.
Joe Rodon, David Brooks, Neco Williams and George Thomas have also pulled out injured, with Swansea City's Brandon Cooper one of four replacements.
But Cooper, along with Ethan Ampadu and Tyler Roberts, will miss Sunday's qualifier against Belarus in Russia.
They are unable to travel because of visa issues.
The game was switched to Kazan because teams from the United Kingdom and the European Union cannot enter Belarus by air due to sanctions against the country's government.
The Football Association of Wales (FAW) says Ampadu, Cooper and Roberts were unable to get Russian visa approval in time before travelling to Finland for the warm-up game.
Following that match in Helsinki, the trio will return to Cardiff to prepare for the home qualifier against Estonia on Wednesday, 8 September.
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The remainder of the squad captained by Gareth Bale will fly to Russia without Ramsey, whose club Juventus said on Sunday he had a thigh muscle problem and would have further tests in 10 days.
The former Arsenal and Cardiff City midfielder is said to have a "low-grade lesion of the adductor major muscle of the right thigh" and FAW medics are speaking to his club to look at the possibility of Ramsey being available for the Estonia match.
Wales manager Robert Page has also called-up Cardiff City forward Mark Harris, Bolton midfielder Josh Sheehan and Liverpool winger Ben Woodburn, who is currently on loan at Scottish Premier League side Hearts.
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 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.
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