Former England striker Gabriel Agbonlahor has launched a fresh World Cup blast at Wales and even labelled Gareth Bale as selfish' for playing 'walking football' against Gareth Southgate's men.
Agbonlahor boldly claimed before the start of the World Cup that not a single Wales player would make the England squad - or even a list of the top 30 players available to Southgate.
The man who played most of his career at Aston Villa and earned three caps for England before making a name for himself after retirement as a controversial pundit for talkSPORT is on Wales' case again.
As well as now saying that he has been proven right after the disappointing showing from Rob Page's men in Qatar, coupled with England cruising through to the next stage as winners of Group B, Agbonlahor also hit out at Bale and questioned his fitness.
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Bale started all three of Wales’ World Cup games in Qatar, scoring one goal from the penalty spot in the 1-1 draw against USA. However, he struggled to make an impact from open play in all three games and was taken off at half-time by boss Page in the third and final match against England because of a hamstring issue.
Agbonlahor has claimed Bale should not have played at all, at least in the fixture against England, saying Brennan Johnson or someone else should have been chosen.
Speaking on talkSPORT on Thursday, he said: “Before the tournament started, I made a statement that the Welsh fans were upset with - I said ‘no Welsh player gets in England’s best 30 players’, and I’ve been proven right haven’t I?
“Bale against England was not fit. I thought he was very selfish. If I was Rob Page, I know he’s Mr Wales, Gareth Bale, but he must see him in training. He’s not fit enough to play. He started the game against England and he was playing walking football the whole first half and then he came off at half-time, injured.
"For me, that’s selfish, when you could have played (Brennan) Johnson, you could have played other players who would have been 100% fit and added something.”
Despite being off the pace in Qatar and many fearing his international career would come to and end with Wales’ World Cup hopes, Bale himself has thus far not indicated a readiness to call time on a fabulous career for his country. He said following the defeat to England that the squad, including himself, would “go again” in March next year when the qualifying campaign for Euro 2024 gets underway.
Bale said: "I will keep going as long as I can and as long as I am wanted. It’s a difficult moment now obviously .We go again. We have a qualifying campaign starting up again in March and we have a few months to get away from international football for months, which is obviously disappointing. But we go again in March.”
Read next:
- 'Reporting this World Cup has been the privilege of my life'
- Where next for Wales, what role do Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey play and how does Rob Page turn things around
- Wales crashing out of the World Cup group stages is both disappointing and a point of pride — it is complicated
- Ex-England star and ITV World Cup pundit reckons he is ‘banned’ from Cardiff after scoring World Cup goal against Wales
- England can learn from 'joyous' Welsh fans says Daily Telegraph
