Wales v Bulgaria/Switzerland v Wales Updates 5th October 2010

Danny Gabbidon has retired from international football. It’s true that he’s had a number of serious injury problems and understandable that he might prefer to concentrate on club football but I’m very disappointed, by both his retirement and the timing of his announcement. Brian Flynn isn’t happy and I don’t blame him. Danny ought to have announced his retirement either before the squad was announced or after he’d played in the match. Maybe one day he’ll feel able to reconsider. It would be great to see him have a good run in West Ham's team.

Neal Eardley, Brian Stock and Robert Earnshaw have all been ruled out of Wales’ qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland. Rob has missed the last few matches for Nottingham Forest with a hamstring injury so his withdrawal is not a surprise. Neal suffered a knee injury during Blackpool’s win against Liverpool (funny how the second half of that sentence goes some way towards making up for the first) while Brian’s back is playing up again.

Neil Taylor (Swansea City), Darcy Blake (Cardiff City), Andrew Crofts (Norwich City) and Ryan Doble (Southampton) have been called into the squad. I’m especially thrilled for Darcy, who has been one of Cardiff's best players (no disrespect to the others but I was particularly shocked by Darcy's omission from the original squad) while Andrew and Neil have done really well for their new clubs Norwich and Swansea. Ryan recently made a very brief Southampton debut but he’s obviously impressed at under-21 level.


Wales squad
Goalkeepers: Jonathan Bond (Watford), David Cornell (Swansea City), Wayne Hennessey (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Boaz Myhill (West Bromwich Albion)
Defenders: Darcy Blake (Cardiff City), Danny Collins (Stoke City), James Collins (Aston Villa), Chris Gunter (Nottingham Forest), Christian Ribeiro (Bristol City), Sam Ricketts (Bolton Wanderers), Neil Taylor (Swansea City), Ashley Williams (Swansea City)
Midfielders: Joe Allen (Swansea City), Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur), Andrew Crofts (Norwich City), Dave Edwards (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Andy King (Leicester City), Joe Ledley (Celtic), David Vaughan (Blackpool)
Forwards: Simon Church (Reading), Ryan Doble (Southampton), Ched Evans (Sheff Utd), Steve Morison (Millwall), Hal Robson-Kanu (Reading).

Hal Robson-Kanu could be a doubt after missing Reading’s weekend match but I haven’t heard anything about him being a doubt so maybe he’s okay now.


Danny Collins is happy to be back with Wales. He explains what went wrong between him and John Toshack.

Chris Gunter believes Brian Flynn is the answer to Wales’ problems.

Gareth Bale is also very happy with his new manager.

It might sound strange but Craig Bellamy’s health is even more important than Wales' qualifying. I’m not happy that Craig wasn’t allowed to play for Wales but then he plays for Cardiff but I don’t blame Craig for that. It’s a strange situation, a player’s being withdrawn from contention for their country but then playing for their club before their country’s match was due to take place but it’s not a situation for which we can really blame the player. But the manager? That's a different matter. Maybe the Wales fans should have been given more of an explanation for Craig's absence.

Simon Davies has spoken about his retirement from international football and the seriousness of his foot injury.