By Gareth James
Aaron Ramsey has been ruled out of Wales’ three remaining European Championship qualifying matches after Cardiff City confirmed his absence would be measured in months rather than weeks.
The 32-year-old Wales captain hasn’t played since twisting his knee in a freak training incident last month.
Wales boss Rob Page had resigned himself to being without his skipper for next week’s key clash with Croatia in Cardiff, but now he will have to count him out of the final group games against Turkey and Armenia.
“Aaron won’t need to have surgery but he will be out for at least 8-10 weeks. If he does have to have surgery then it will be another 12 weeks from then,” said Cardiff manager Erol Bulut.
“We will miss him, but we will have to manage. We have 25 players in our squad and they will all have to be ready.”
The news comes after Page told the media in Wrexham that he expected Ramsey to be fit for the vital games in November. Now that looks impossible.
Wales will have a run out against Gibraltar on 11 October in the build up to the game against Croatia four days later.
😬 “Right now, he will be out for at least eight to 10 weeks and if he needs surgery, it could be up to [an extra] 12 weeks.”
Wales captain Aaron Ramsey is set to miss the rest of the euro qualifying campaign.#BBCFootball | #CardiffCity #Wales pic.twitter.com/ZthZKDBJtk
— BBC Sport Wales (@BBCSportWales) October 5, 2023
The shock 4-2 home loss to Armenia in June severely dented Wales’ qualification hopes, having drawn in Croatia and beaten Latvia in March.
They then lost 2-0 away in Turkey before a 2-0 win in Latvia threw them a lifeline. As it stands Wales still have to have to play Croatia and Turkey at home, and have to travel to Armenia to complete their fixtures.
Just three points cover the top four teams – Croatia, Turkey, Armenia and Wales – and to guarantee automatic qualification for the finals in Germany in 2024 they will need to win all three matches.
Page has also lost Tottenham Hotspur’s new signing Brennan Johnson for this camp with a hamstring injury.
The Bluebirds have also been decimated by injuries. As well as losing Ramsey, Bulut has lost Calum O’Dowda for up to three weeks after he underwent surgery on an adductor injury, while both Kion Etete and Yakou Miete are both out for a month with hamstring injuries.
Bulut’s men host Watford at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday.
