ROBERT PAGE has been torn by Danny Ward’s Leicester exile.
The Foxes goalkeeper, who is also Wales’ No1, has not played a single minute at club level this season in contrast to five matches for his country.
Wales boss Page asked for his out-of-favour stars to get January moves but Ward, who cost £12.5million from Liverpool in 2018, failed to leave the King Power.
Page said: “I’ve spoken to Danny. It wasn’t a case of him not listening to my advice. I had a couple of conversations with him.
“When you put your player head on, you get it, I understand it.
“When politics are involved and you’ve got a length of time left on your contract, it is not as easy as just getting out and playing games of football. There are many aspects to that.
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“We’ve dealt with players not playing for clubs in the past.
“I’m just going to focus on the positives and the positives are that the majority of our squad are out playing football and playing well.
“When I put my player head on, I have sympathy for Danny, when I put my manager head on, no, but with my player head on, of course I understand.
“It’s hard sometimes and not easy to just get out when there are wages, fees and all-sorts involved, it is out of your control.”
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Ward, 30, was on the bench for Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final tie at Chelsea.
But his preparation is hardly ideal for Thursday’s crunch Euro 2024 play-off semi-final against Finland in Cardiff.
Page added: “He has played in a couple of under-23 games, he said he was going to do that and he has done, I think he’s played three or four.
“It’s not the level, we know that, but at least he’s made some effort to go and play games.
“In all positions it is important to have that rhythm of playing games.
“We’ve managed it in the past before, we’ve never had the luxury of the amount of players playing that we do at the moment. We will have them up to speed and ready for the game.”
Ipswich’s Wes Burns is unlikely to be fit after limping off with a hamstring injury in Saturday’s 6-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday.
Wycombe’s Joe Low has pulled out through a minor hamstring injury.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
