Burns to miss Wales' Nations League openers

Ipswich Town winger Wes Burns has won eight caps for Wales

Ipswich Town winger Wes Burns is set to miss Craig Bellamy’s first games as Wales manager after being ruled out for “a number of weeks” with a hamstring injury.

Bellamy names his squad on Wednesday for the Nations League double-header with Turkey and Montenegro.

But on Thursday Burns was ruled out of Ipswich’s next three Premier League fixtures following the problem sustained in Town’s opening-day defeat by Liverpool.

Ipswich teammate Nathan Broadhead is also already out with his own hamstring injury the forward suffered in pre-season, while Bournemouth winger David Brooks is a major doubt having not yet returned to action from shoulder surgery.

Wales take on Turkey in Cardiff on 6 September before a trip to Montenegro three days later.

The games will see Bellamy take charge of the national side for the first time since replacing Rob Page.

While captain Aaron Ramsey has come through a fitness scare to be declared fit for Cardiff City’s south Wales derby trip to Swansea City, it will come as a blow to be without the three attacking Premier League players.

Burns, 29, limped off 57 minutes into his top-flight debut, with Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna saying: “We scanned it this week and it’s going to be a number of weeks. It’s a blow for Wes and for us because he’s an important part in our system.”

Forward Broadhead was ruled out in July for up to the first two months of the new campaign, although the 12-cap 26-year-old has not undergone surgery.

Brooks, however, went under the knife to repair the dislocated shoulder he suffered in the Championship play-off final while on loan at Southampton.

The injury prevented the 27-year-old from featuring in Wales’ end-of-season friendlies with Gibraltar and Slovakia, the final games of Page’s tenure before he was dismissed by the Football Association of Wales.

Former captain Bellamy, 45, was appointed as Page’s successor last month and this week confirmed his backroom staff, including current Brighton assistant coach Andrew Crofts.