World Cup spot open for Brooks
Wales boss, Robert Page, has left the World Cup door open for David Brooks after admitting watching the Bournemouth forward’s return to training after cancer left him emotional.
Brooks has signed a new four-year deal with the Cherries just 10 months after being diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Bournemouth boss Scott Parker says Brooks is “certainly heading in the right direction” ahead of November’s World Cup in Qatar, even though no time frame has been put on his return to action.
“I’ve seen footage of him training and it’s quite emotional watching it,” said Page, who himself is poised to sign a four-year contract with the Football Association of Wales as the permanent successor to Ryan Giggs.
“What he’s had to go through to get back to that level, it’s incredible. I am just so pleased for him, so we want to take that pressure off him.
“We wouldn’t rush him back. We wouldn’t do that to Bournemouth and we wouldn’t do that to Brooksy.
“Bournemouth have been excellent throughout, how they’ve managed him from what he’s been through from day one.”
The 21-cap Brooks has not played since Bournemouth drew at Peterborough on September 29 of last year. He received his cancer diagnosis a few weeks later, but announced in May that he had been given the all-clear.
The 25-year-old met up with Page’s squad in June as Wales qualified for their first World Cup since 1958.
On whether Brooks could make his 26-man squad in Qatar, Page said: “I don’t want to put any pressure on him.
“He’ll absolutely get there, whether it’s for September, the World Cup or March.”