Gareth Bale was taken off at halftime of Wales’ World Cup loss to England because he had hurt his hamstring. Wales manager Rob Page confirmed this.
Bale hadn’t played much football recently before the World Cup, and that seemed to hurt him in the 3-0 loss.
He left the action at halftime, and Brennan Johnson came in to take his place. Page said that was not his idea.
“Gareth felt his hamstring five minutes before halftime,” Rob Page told BBC Sport about Bale’s substitution. “Joe Allen and Ben Davies had to go off as well. The group worked hard, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
Wales had a bad World Cup, and the loss ended it. It felt like the end of an era for the Welsh team in Qatar.
But for Page, qualifying was the real win, and he says the challenge now is to make sure it wasn’t a one-time thing.
“It’s very hard to deal with at this time,” he said. “I thought we did a great job in the first half. The work we did without the ball was outstanding.
“We could have held on to the ball better, but I won’t let anyone say anything bad about that group of players. They gave everything they had today.” I’m not too happy about the second goal, but I don’t want to talk about bad things today.
“My message is this: don’t be sad. We’ll start planning again for the future, and for that group of players to get to the World Cup is an amazing accomplishment.
