Aaron Ramsey will miss Wales’s opening 2018 World Cup qualifier against Moldova. The midfielder suffered a hamstring injury in Arsenal’s Premier League opening game against Liverpool and Arsène Wenger said the player would not be fit until after the international break.
Chris Coleman, naming a 23-man squad for the qualifier in Cardiff on 5 September, said he expected Ramsey to be out for another three weeks. “When you’ve got a player as good as Aaron, take him out of any team and you are going to know about it. He is irreplaceable, he makes a huge impact for us. He is a great player and it’s a shame he’s not here. He’s a loss to any team.”
Jonathan Williams is also expected to be out for a couple of months after suffering an ankle injury in a Crystal Palace pre-season friendly. “Jonny has had a good impact on the team and brings something different,” Coleman said. “I saw that tackle on him, it was a coward’s tackle from behind, and that was annoying.”
The midfielder David Vaughan, who made his debut in a 2-0 away defeat to the United States in May 2003, has retired. The 33-year-old was in the squad who reached the Euro 2016 semi-finals but he remained an unused substitute throughout the tournament. The former Blackpool and Sunderland player has decided to focus on his club career at Nottingham Forest.
Coleman said: “He sat down with me when he got back from France and explained he was going to retire. I tried to talk him out of because he’s been with us for so long and he’s got good quality. He wants to spend more time with his family and concentrate on his club career, and we’ve got to respect that. He’s been a great servant for Wales.”
In their place come the Newcastle defender Paul Dummett, the Cardiff midfielder Emyr Huws and the Leicester striker Tom Lawrence.
The manager said he was “fully focused” after being linked with the vacancy at Hull City. It was reported Coleman wanted to talk to Hull but the Football Association of Wales rejected their approach.
“I want to work at the top level like everyone else but that doesn’t mean that’s the Premier League,” Coleman said. “I’ve said before I’d like to work in Europe again but what I’ve got here is something pretty special, something close to my heart.
“There was an approach, the FAW turned it down and I’m fully focused on what I need to do for my country again. It’s difficult to walk away from Wales now, especially on the back of what we’ve done and on the eve of a World Cup campaign. I’m not going to tell a lie. If someone comes and it’s the Premier League, anybody, you kind of look at it sideways, of course you do. But I’m the manager of my country. That comes around once if you’re lucky, and I hope I never have any regrets when my time with Wales is up.”
Coleman also dismissed the idea of Wales being part of a Team GB team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Sam Allardyce has backed the idea but the FAW fear it could damage Wales’s position as an independent nation within Fifa.
“For us, no. I don’t agree with that,” Coleman said. “Anything that could put what we’ve built in jeopardy is not for us – and our stance on that hasn’t changed.”
Wales squad (v Moldova, Cardiff, 5 Sept) Hennessey (Crystal Palace), Ward (Liverpool), O Fon Williams (Inverness); Gunter (Reading), Chester (Aston Villa), A Williams (Everton), Collins (West Ham), Davies (Tottenham), Richards (Cardiff), Taylor (Swansea), Dummett (Newcastle); Allen (Stoke), Ledley (Crystal Palace), Huws (Cardiff), King (Leicester), Edwards (Wolves), G Williams (Fulham), Cotterill (Birmingham); Bale (Real Madrid), Robson-Kanu (unattached), Vokes (Burnley), Church (MK Dons), Lawrence (Leicester).