Charlie Savage: Wales U21s manager Matty Jones praises midfielder's 'courage and bravery'
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Wales Under-21s midfielder Charlie Savage spent the second half of last season on loan at Forest Green Rovers
Wales Under-21s manager Matty Jones has praised Charlie Savage's "courage" after the midfielder was selected in the senior squad for the first time.
The 20-year-old opted for a move away from Manchester United this summer in search of regular playing time, and has since made 12 appearances for Reading.
Savage, son of former Wales international Robbie, is one of three U21s players in Page's senior squad.
"He is doing his talking through his ability and performances," said Jones.
"The courage he has shown as a young player, to leave a club like Manchester United to carve out a career at Reading has been exceptional.
"Not many players would have the bravery to do that, so we have to give him a huge amount of credit for that."
Savage took no time introducing himself to the Reading faithful, curling in a superb free-kick against Millwall in the Carabao Cup on his second appearance for the Royals.
And the midfielder scored his first league goal for the club last month in a 2-1 away win against Bolton.
"We can speak about his ability and talent, of course we can, but what he has done is gone to play men's football and he has found a way to achieve week in week out," added Jones.
"It's not just performances he is carving out, his statistics are showing that he is really effective on the pitch.
"He was exceptional in our September window and his attitude has been very, very good."
Savage joins Owen Beck and Luke Harris in the Wales senior squad for their friendly against Gibraltar next week, but the trio will then link back up with the Under-21s squad.
Jones' Under-21s travel to the Czech Republic later this month as they continue their qualification campaign for the 2025 Euro Under-21s Championship.
Wales beat Lithuania 3-2 away from home in their last match to go joint top of their qualification group, having began the campaign with a 2-2 draw away at top seeds Denmark.
Both goals that day were scored from the penalty spot by Cardiff City's Rubin Colwill, who is one of the more surprising absentees from Page's squad.
Cardiff City attacking midfielder Rubin Colwill has won eight caps for Wales at senior level
Colwill's omission from the senior squad makes him available again for the Under-21s, and Jones hopes he plays a key role once more.
"We are going to relish the opportunity," said Jones.
"Rubin has been a pivotal part to our success in the campaign so far, and when he makes that step back into the senior squad we will take some suffering.
"That's an acceptance, I never begrudge that because that's where he deserves to be and it's only a matter of time.
"Rubin is doing some fantastic things, we see it in glimpses at Cardiff when he is given the opportunity, and we can see the manager there [Erol Bulut] is trusting him more on a week to week basis.
"The objective for Rubin is to play more game time, because he has committed to Cardiff it has to come there, so that's the challenge for him to carve himself into the starting team."