Giggs: Bale injury is a chance for others to shine
WALES manager Ryan Giggs says Gareth Bale’s absence from tonight’s friendly against Spain is a chance for his players to prove they are not a one-man team.
The Real Madrid forward has been ruled out of the match in Cardiff with a groin problem described as “muscle fatigue” and Giggs said he had a “50-50” chance of facing Ireland in Tuesday’s UEFA Nations League game in Dublin.
Giggs has several attacking alternatives in his young squad and he is counting on them to show there is life without the country’s all-time leading scorer.
“We obviously have options,” he said. “We’ve got Sam Vokes, Tom Lawrence, Tyler Roberts, who can all play up top, or you can play two up top.
“We need those options because Gareth sometimes isn’t going to be there. That was something I was aware of when we took over. That was why I tried to push a lot of the young players through and sort of fast-track them. We need a Plan B.”
Giggs said Wales would consult Real Madrid’s medical staff before taking a decision on whether or not to field Bale against Ireland.
Bale, 29, has not trained since joining up with the squad, but he has been attending team meetings and will be in the changing room tonight.
Wales opened their Nations League campaign with a one-sided 4-1 win over Ireland in Cardiff last month, before losing 2-0 to Denmark in Aarhus.
The Football Association of Wales had switched the game to the Principality Stadium in the hope of cashing in on the presence of Spain stars such as David de Gea and Sergio Ramos.
A crowd of more than 50,000 is expected and at Giggs’s request the roof will be closed to enhance the atmosphere and mitigate against the risk of rain.
Giggs described the pitch as “magnificent” and joked it might work against Wales, given the clinical manner in which Spain dismantled World Cup finalists Croatia 6-0 on their last outing.
“The pitch might be too good!” he said. “I thought about growing the grass a little bit longer.”
Wales have not played at the 74,500-seater Principality Stadium since a Euro 2012 qualifier against England in March 2011.
Attendances fell below 20,000 during the latter years of the team’s full-time occupancy of the national stadium, prompting the successful move to the smaller Cardiff City Stadium.
Wales captain Ashley Williams is one of the few players in the current squad who remembers what it was like to play at the Principality Stadium and there was a pregnant pause when he was asked how he remembered the ground.
“Not full, if I’m being honest,” he said after reflection.
Williams was one of the stalwarts of the side that reached the semi-finals of Euro 2016 under Giggs’s predecessor, Chris Coleman, but he believes the current squad is even stronger.
“This is the strongest squad I’ve seen since I’ve been playing for Wales,” he said.
“If I look at the last camp, there were two XIs that could go out and be as strong as each other. We’ve never really had that.”