Jess to get rest as Wales face NZ

WALES’ most-capped footballer Jess Fishlock has been rested for her team’s friendly against New Zealand at the end of this month.

Gemma Grainger has announced a 25-player squad for her side’s match in Pinatar, Spain on June 28th (6.30pm kick-off BST), which will act as a final audition before rounding off Wales Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign in September.

Wales travel to Spain with a near full-strength squad, but Fishlock has been rested for the trip which falls at the midway point of America’s NWSL season with OL Reign.

Orlando Pride midfielder Angharad James is named in the squad and could win her 98th cap, while stalwarts Helen Ward and Natasha Harding - who both his 100 Wales caps earlier this year - join captain Sophie Ingle in the squad.

Manchester United and Wales U19s goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel receives her first callup to the senior team.

Harding, who left Women’s Super League side Reading at the end of the season, is one of six players in the Wales squad who is currently unattached to a club, joining Anna Filbey and Josie Green (who have departed Tottenham), goalkeeper Poppy Soper, midfielder Megan Wynne and attacker Elise Hughes, but Grainger is not concerned.

Wales last faced New Zealand in June 2019, when a late Kayleigh Green goal secured a 1-0 win at the Leckwith Stadium.

This month’s friendly will be Wales’ final preparations ahead of their last two World Cup qualifiers: away to Greece on Thursday, September 2, and home to Slovenia at Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday, September 6.

Wales need four points from both games to secure a secondplace finish in the group and a play-off spot for next year’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. If successful, it would mark qualification for their first major tournament.

Ahead of the main squad travelling to Spain, there will also be a two-day development camp at the FAW’s Vale HQ where several new faces will link up with the senior squad for the first time, including Arsenal’s Bethan McGowan and Cardiff City Women’s Phoebie Poole.

Wales squad to face New Zealand: O’Sullivan, Clark, Soper, Middleton-Patel, R Roberts, Green, Ladd, Evans, Rowe, Woodham, Ingle, Filbey, James, Walters, C Jones, Morgan, Wynne, Hughes, Green, Ward, Harding, Holland, Williams, Rogers, Bull