Daniel James' fitness is still being carefully managed by Leeds United and Wales.
Wales will keep a close eye on Daniel James’ fitness before deciding whether the Leeds United winger will play in Tuesday’s friendly against Northern Ireland.
James is one of four Leeds players still with Wales this month despite Thursday’s World Cup play-off semi-final defeat to Bosnia on penalties. The 28-year-old scored an incredible long-range goal to put his nation 1-0 up but did not complete 90 minutes, eventually watching on as Brennan Johnson and Neco Williams missed crucial spot-kicks.
Despite their elimination, Wales are obliged to play twice during the break and will therefore host the other play-off semi-final losers, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday night. It remains to be seen whether head coach Craig Bellamy will go full strength in a bid to bounce back or use the opportunity to rotate.
Prior to Thursday’s play-off semi-final, James had only started one game for Leeds since suffering a hamstring tendon injury back in November. The speedy winger has endured a difficult campaign fitness-wise and given the lack of regular football, Bellamy has suggested a cautious approach will be taken.
“Dan James we have to check on because he’s had one game in four months leading into this - and he was ill leading into the camp,” Bellamy said. “So the output, he’d done more than what we thought he was going to be able to do.
“I’d have loved to have kept him on for 120 minutes [against Bosnia] with the way he was playing, all day long, but physically it wasn’t possible. He was cramping up and he needed to come off. So we’re really checking on him at the present moment.”
Leeds United internationals fitness latest
Leeds will be relieved to hear of Wales’ approach to James, given his injury woes all season. The Welshman will be hoping another club-level start in the FA Cup at West Ham this weekend can kickstart his campaign at this late point.
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Bellamy was not quizzed on potential plans to rotate and could therefore opt to start Karl Darlow, Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu. But Leeds will hope all can return unscathed.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin earned an England call-up but played just over half an hour in a friendly against Uruguay on Friday. He was subsequently sent back to West Yorkshire as first-team stars returned and Thomas Tuchel cut down his squad.
Anton Stach, Ao Tanaka, Noah Okafor and Gabriel Gudmundsson are among those still to get through a second round of fixtures. The latter has a World Cup decider against Poland to look forward to on Tuesday evening.
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