Aaron Ramsey has been left out of the Wales squad for their World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Georgia in October with manager Chris Coleman questioning if the midfielder’s injury could have been prevented.
Chris Coleman’s men travel to Vienna for their second qualifying match of Group D against Austria on 6 October before welcoming Georgia to Cardiff three days later.
However, the Arsenal midfielder has been omitted from the squad after failing to return to match fitness in time. Ramsey is struggling with a hamstring problem picked up on the opening day of the season in the 4-3 defeat to Liverpool.
Speaking at a press conference to announce the Wales squad, Coleman admitted Ramsey would be hugely disappointed at not being able to feature for his country.
“It’s disappointing that he’s not fit when we expected him to be fit,” he said according to FourFourTwo.
“He expected to be fit sooner as well so it’s disappointing for all of us. I know what Ramsey’s like – he’ll want to be on the pitch.
“But the players we’ve got, we’ve got total confidence in them and they know the drill. They know what’s required.
“He doesn’t belong to us, he’s Arsenal’s player and it’s their call, they pay his wages, and if that’s the decision they made it’s up to them,.
“We don’t know exactly what he does every day at Arsenal. They’re a great club, but it’s disappointing to lose a player of his importance.
“You always look at their history in training, his loading, the games he’s played and you ask could that injury have been prevented? He’ll be gutted.”
The news is a big blow for Wales as Ramsey was arguably their star man at Euro 2016 with four assists in five games. The midfielder helped inspire Coleman’s men to the semi-finals where they were knocked out by eventual winners Portugal.
Ramsey is unlikely therefore to return to action until after the international break at the earliest. Arsenal play four home games in a row after the break, with Swansea the visitors on October 15 followed by Ludogorets, Middlesbrough and Reading.