Rob Page reveals reason for Gareth Bale half-time substitution

Gareth Bale did not have the World Cup he would have wanted
Gareth Bale did not have the World Cup he would have wanted / Justin Setterfield/GettyImages
facebooktwitterreddit

Wales boss Rob Page confirmed Gareth Bale was withdrawn at half-time in the World Cup defeat to England due to a hamstring injury.

Bale came into the World Cup with very little recent football under his belt, and that appeared to catch up with him in the 3-0 defeat.

He left the action at half-time to be replaced by Brennan Johnson, and Page said that was not his decision.

“Five minutes before half-time, Gareth felt his hamstring,” Page told BBC Sport about Bale's substitution. “Joe Allen and Ben Davies had to come off as well. It was a massive effort from all the group and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

The defeat rounded off a poor World Cup for Wales, who had a feel of a team at the end of an era in Qatar.

For Page, though, the real success was to qualify and he says the challenge now is to make sure it’s not a one-off.


Harry Symeou hosts Scott Saunders and Toby Cudworth to look back on South Korea/Japan '02 as part of the 'Our World Cup' series. We take a trip down memory lane - join us!

If you can't see the podcast embed, click to download or listen to the episode in full!


“It’s very tough to take at this moment in time,” he said. “I thought in the first half we were outstanding – the effort we put in without the ball was exceptional.

“We could have kept the ball better but I won’t have a bad word said about that group of players; they’ve given everything today. The second goal disappoints me a little bit, but I don’t want to talk about negatives today.

“My message is: don’t do disappointed. We’ll build again for the future now, and to get to the World Cup is an unbelievable achievement for that group of players.