Injury worries for Wales - not looking good....

[CHAPPERS]

Wales and Cardiff City centre back Rob Page will miss Saturday's World Cup qualifier with England at Old Trafford.

Page is out with damaged ribs, but the 30-year-old will stay with the squad to prepare for next Wednesday's home qualifier against Poland in Cardiff.

Full-back Rhys Weston is definitely out with a hamstring injury.

Andy Melville or James Collins are the candidates to partner Danny Gabbidon at the centre back, but neither of the two are regulars for their clubs sides.

Melville arrived at the team hotel on Monday having played just 20 minutes of football in seven weeks after losing his place at West Ham United.

And Collins, whose slip led to David Healy scoring Northern Ireland's second goal in last month's 2-2 draw in Cardiff, has not started a game for Cardiff since August.

Wales manager Mark Hughes could ask Mark Delaney to switch from his usual right-back role to centre back, a role he is now playing for Aston Villa.



But with Rob Edwards out injured, there are no obvious candidates to cover for Delaney.

The goalkeeping spot could also give Hughes some headaches this week after his first-choice stopper Paul Jones was dropped to the bench by Wolves on Saturday.

The only threat to Jones' place, though, would seem to come in the shape of Burnley's Danny Coyne, who has kept five clean sheets in the last six Championship games.

Wales manager Mark Hughes will have also been concerned that Jason Koumas, John Oster and Robert Earnshaw all failed to appear for their club sides over the weekend.


Hmmmmmmmmm

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

so a potentially crap defence against owen,rooney,defoe,vassel,smith,wright phillips.....................

 

[Uncle Buck]

Not saying anything, like the Albion, England can make really hard work of these situations. The Greece game springs to mind.

 

[WATF0RD ZERO]

England making hard work of drawing with the European Champions to get the point they needed to qualify ?

 

[Uncle Buck]

England making hard work of drawing with the European Champions to get the point they needed to qualify ?

Well in 2001 they were not European Champions, could not qualify and we still made a hash of it.

Also I think it is safe to say with Greece's run of results since June that winning that tournament was a fluke. Lose if Albania and only draw at home with Turkey, neither of whom qualified for Portugal.

 

[Seagull over NZ]

I have this real bad feeling that th Welsh boys will be really up for it but we won't. A bit like playing Australia at football, the England boys weren't that bothered about it but the Aussies were.

Ok, its a world cup qualifier so they should be up for it anyway, but I just have a bad feeling about how "up for it" the Welsh boys will be. A big positive for us is that Savage is not playing. Whilst he isn't the greatest player on the earth, he could have had the effect of lifting his whole team with his work rate an dmotivation.

 

[saafend_seagull]

they should called up jonah

 

[REDLAND]

Michael Owen has ruled himself out of England's World Cup qualifier with Wales on Saturday due to injury.

The Real Madrid star was called up to the squad despite sustaining a back injury in Real's defeat to Deportivo La Coruna last weekend.

Owen was forced off after 53 minutes having aggravated the old injury in the first half of the game.

The 24-year-old has now revealed that the complaint will keep him out of England's eagerly-anticipated clash with Wales at Old Trafford.

Owen told fans at a book signing in Chester that he would not be available for Saturday's showdown, but insisted he would be ready to play a part in the subsequent game in Azerbaijan next Wednesday.

The news will come as a big blow for England boss Sven Goran Eriksson, but means the Swede is almost certain to name Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe as his strike partnership against Wales

SHIT !!!!

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

so 1-0 wales then

 

[Yoda]

they should called up jonah

I was just about to say that.

 

[saafend_seagull]

Michael Owen has ruled himself out of England's World Cup qualifier with Wales on Saturday due to injury.

The Real Madrid star was called up to the squad despite sustaining a back injury in Real's defeat to Deportivo La Coruna last weekend.

Owen was forced off after 53 minutes having aggravated the old injury in the first half of the game.

The 24-year-old has now revealed that the complaint will keep him out of England's eagerly-anticipated clash with Wales at Old Trafford.

Owen told fans at a book signing in Chester that he would not be available for Saturday's showdown, but insisted he would be ready to play a part in the subsequent game in Azerbaijan next Wednesday.

The news will come as a big blow for England boss Sven Goran Eriksson, but means the Swede is almost certain to name Wayne Rooney and Jermain Defoe as his strike partnership against Wales

SHIT !!!!

quality- let them take advantage of this weakened defence. im going for england 4 -1 wales. (rooney 2, defoe, lampard)