Wales captain Aaron Ramsey says he never considered international retirement after the disappointment of missing out on Euro 2024, and instead wants to keep playing until the 2026 World Cup.
Ramsey, 33, was an unused substitute as Wales lost their Euros play-off final to Poland on penalties in March, with then manager Rob Page criticised for not bringing him on.
The Cardiff City midfielder admits that experience had “eaten away” at him but, now Craig Bellamy has replaced Page as Wales boss, Ramsey is excited about the team’s future.
“It never entered my mind about stopping. If anything, it excites me what this team are capable of,” said Ramsey.
“It was difficult for me not to get on and hopefully try to help the team to qualify. That was the thing that was eating away at me and I felt like there was some unfinished business there.
“That is definitely an aim of mine, to help this team qualify for the next World Cup. The potential in this team, the age, it’s all positive and puts us in a great position to do that.”
Bellamy’s first game in charge will be at home to Turkey in the Nations League on Friday.
When he named his squad for that game and the away match in Montenegro three days later, Bellamy confirmed that Ramsey would continue as captain.
Bellamy also said there was still “a lot” to come from his former Wales and Cardiff team-mate despite the injury issues which have hampered Ramsey throughout his career.
The ex-Arsenal midfielder and his current Wales team-mates have started training under Bellamy for the first time this week, and the consensus among the squad is overwhelmingly positive about the new head coach’s thorough methods and shift towards a more progressive, adventurous style of play.
“I think the way that he’s come in and handled himself has been so impressive. There’s been a lot of information given in the first few days but the boys have done really well to absorb as much as they can so far.
“It’s definitely going to be a process in these next six games before the World Cup qualifiers start [in March]. It’s really aggressive, high-intensity without the ball, the non-negotiable stuff. The way he sees the game is new to a lot of us – only Connor [Roberts, who worked with Bellamy at Burnley] has experienced that before.
“We’re all pretty impressed and hopefully we can implement the things we’ve been working on in these first few games,” Ramsey said.
