Nations League: Wales defender Joe Rodon on the rise at Rennes

Joe Rodon celebrates Stade Rennais' Europa League triumph over AEK Larnaca earlier this month

Wales defender Joe Rodon says leaving Tottenham Hotspur this summer was "something he had to do".

He joined French side Rennes on loan in August after struggling for game time at Spurs, fearing he would not be ready for the World Cup.

Now Rodon is making up for lost time with just two months before the tournament kicks off in Qatar.

"No player wants to be going to a World Cup having hardly played a minute of football," the 24-year-old said.

"Everyone is aware I haven't played that much over the last two years. I think it was really important for me and my development to be exposed and be put in a position where I play a lot of games."

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He is certainly doing that. Between outings in Ligue 1 and the Europa League, the former Swansea City centre-back is only four starts shy for Rennes than his total for Tottenham since an £11m move from south Wales in October 2020.

Not that his place in Rob Page's Wales squad has ever been in doubt, Rodon having been a mainstay despite failing to force his way into the plans of Antonio Conte - or, before him, Jose Mourinho - at the Premier League club.

For 28-cap Rodon, though, that was not the point.

"It was more about me being true to myself," he explained ahead of Wales' Nations League meeting with Belgium on Thursday - their penultimate fixture before their World Cup finals get underway against USA on 21 November.

"I need to be playing every week. I feel it should be like that for any national team. You want players who are playing every week and working hard," Rodon said.

"That's the way it should be. Things happen in football, but for me I needed to be playing every week to become a better player. It's something I had to do."

It is something Page was keen to see. In June both he and captain Gareth Bale had urged Tottenham to put more trust in Rodon.

In the end, looking lost in London, Rodon is finding himself in France.

"I've settled well," Rodon says. "The first couple of weeks are obviously going to be challenging and different but as they've gone on, it's got better and better. The French is going to take a while, but football is football."

Which is what Rodon is focussing on with Rennes on a six-game unbeaten run and currently sixth in the table, a few places above Aaron Ramsey's Nice.

Ex-Juventus midfielder Ramsey - as with former La Liga man Bale and Ethan Ampadu, who has sampled life in both Germany and Italy on loan - were sounding boards before the move to overseas football.

There have been some home comforts; Rennes fans sing the Breton anthem - Bro Gozh ma Zadou - before games, a song that takes the tune of Wales' Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau.

"I heard it before one of the games the other day, it was brilliant but I couldn't quite believe it," he says. "They actually told me about it the day I signed but I thought they were joking."

Away from the stands, Rodon says he is thrilled to be encouraged to bring the ball out of defence as he is entrusted to do with Wales, while the extra technical demands are already, he feels, improving him.

Yet he says it is simply playing every week that has put him in a good place going into the game with Belgium, followed by Poland in Cardiff on Sunday ahead of that trip to Qatar, something looming large in the background.

"Over the last few years, this national team has taken massive steps," he adds. "We want to be playing the best teams in the world in every camp.

"This is something the gaffer has really wanted to create, a winning mentality, and it's something we want to be a part of.

"It's the last camp before the World Cup but there's two very hard games to play now, and we're going to give our all and see where it takes us and then we can focus on the World Cup."