BALE: I’LL KEEP GOING AS LONG AS I’M WANTED

GARETH BALE insisted he may still play on for Wales despite being subbed at the break as they made a painful exit from Qatar.

A 3-0 defeat to England condemned Rob Page’s men to last place in the group in their first World Cup in 64 years.

The Ahmed bin Ali Stadium, where Wales have played all their games, will not hold many fond memories.

Wales were lucky to get a point in their opener against USA and were then well beaten by Iran and England.

Bale and was replaced by Brennan Johnson (below) at half-time with the score 0-0 against the Three Lions in a game Wales needed to win to have chance to reach the last 16.

It looked to be a potentially sorry end to Bale’s illustrious career as a five-time Champions League winner.

At the end a frustrated Bale (above, with Page and Aaron Ramsey) pushed a camera away from filming him at the final whistle as he went to shake hands with England’s stars and commiserate with his team-mates.

But he suggested he wants to play on when Wales return to action away against Croatia on March 25 when they start their qualifying campaign for Euro 2024. He said: “We go again in March.

“I will keep going as long as I can and as long as I am wanted. I hope so.”

Bale had been a key man for Wales in qualification but struggled for form and fitness in Doha after making only two starts for Los Angeles FC in the MLS.

He said: “Everyone is disappointed but we are all proud of what we have achieved to get here to qualify. We have to look how far we have come.

“Of course we would have loved to get past the group but football is difficult. We didn’t quite live up to our expectations but we will take massive experience from it.

“To be at a World Cup, we need to look how far we’ve come.

“If you’d said that two years ago we’d have all to pinch ourselves.

“We need to realise how far we have come, how proud we are of each other.

“We have worked really hard to get here, and like I said it is just disappointing to go out but we will walk out of that changing room with our heads held high and proud of each other.

“We are frustrated. We would have loved to have played better and created more chances but it just didn’t happen to us in this tournament.

“In the past two Euros we have got out of the group. We always give 100 percent and play with hearts – there are no regrets.”