{"id":106141,"date":"2026-03-17T16:43:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T16:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/ramsey-out-of-world-cup-play-off-squad-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T16:43:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T16:43:06","slug":"ramsey-out-of-world-cup-play-off-squad-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/ramsey-out-of-world-cup-play-off-squad-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramsey out of World Cup play-off squad | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n LONDON: <\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wales captain Aaron Ramsey has been left out of the squad for this month’s World Cup play-offs, casting fresh doubts over his future in international football.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old has been without a club since leaving Pumas in December, having not played for the Mexican side since September.<\/p>\n

That lack of first-team football, combined with injuries, mean Ramsey has not played for Wales since September 2024.<\/p>\n

The former Arsenal and Juventus midfielder has said he wants to play for Wales at this year’s World Cup should they qualify, but his hopes of representing his country at a fourth major tournament are now uncertain.<\/p>\n

“He hasn’t played competitive football in seven months. He’s not at a club,” said Wales manager Craig Bellamy after announcing his squad on Tuesday. “It (Ramsey’s future) is not really for me to talk about. It’s a situation I’m sure which will resolve itself.”<\/p>\n

Ben Davies has led Wales in Ramsey’s absence but, as the Tottenham defender is injured, Fulham attacking midfielder Harry Wilson is likely to skipper the team in the play-off semi-final against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Cardiff on March 26.<\/p>\n

The winners of the Wales-Bosnia tie will face either Italy or Northern Ireland at home on March 31 for a place at a World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the United States that runs from June 11 to July 19.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Wales’ attempts to persuade Tottenham defender Ashley Phillips to switch international allegiance appear to have failed for now, with the England Under-21 cap not included in the play-off squad.<\/p>\n

Born in Salford, near Manchester in northwest England, Phillips — Welsh-qualified through a mother from Swansea — was capped by Wales at Under-16 level in 2021 before going on to make over 30 appearances for England youth teams.<\/p>\n

Phillips was approached by Wales to rejoin their national set-up, but his name was missing from Bellamy’s 26-strong squad.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old is on loan at Stoke and has made over 70 appearances across two spells for the English second-tier club.<\/p>\n

“We always look at dual nationalities,” said Bellamy. “They’ve been so good for us over a number of years.<\/p>\n

“It (Phillips’ situation) is not for now but we’re always active on it. We have to be. That’s for another time.”<\/p>\n

Injuries to senior players have disrupted Wales’ play-off plans.<\/p>\n

Davies broke his ankle in January and the defender, who won his 100th cap in October, could miss the World Cup should the Dragons qualify.<\/p>\n

Centre-back Chris Mepham and striker Kieffer Moore are both out of the Bosnia tie with hamstring problems.<\/p>\n

Wrexham’s Danny Ward, one of four goalkeepers in the squad, has been recalled after dislocating his elbow and spending four months on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Full-back Rhys Norrington-Davies and winger Rabbi Matondo, who has not started a game at Scottish giants Rangers this season, also return to the squad.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON: Wales captain Aaron Ramsey has been left out of the squad for this month’s World Cup play-offs, casting fresh doubts over his future in international football. The 35-year-old has been without a club since leaving Pumas in December, having not played for the Mexican side since September. That lack of first-team football, combined with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/aaron-ramsey\/aaron-ramsey-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}