Ramsey named Wales captain

24 March 2011 15:00

Midfielder Aaron Ramsey has been named as the new Wales captain, manager Gary Speed has announced.

The 20-year-old will take the armband for the first time in Saturday's Euro 2012 qualifier against England in Cardiff where Speed's men will be without star winger Gareth Bale due to a hamstring injury.

Speed said: "Aaron Ramsey will be captain. I thought about it a lot. As I have mentioned before, it is about the future and planning ahead. There were two or three candidates. I thought about what is best for the team going forward."

He added: "I spoke to Aaron before making the decision and told him there were certain responsibilities and duties that would go with it, and to see if he was happy with it.

"I'm delighted and he was really happy. I made the decision because I thought it was best for the team and the future of the team."

Meanwhile, Speed insisted that the injury keeping Bale out of Saturday's clash was one he sustained whilst with Tottenham.

It had been suggested that the winger had suffered a reoccurrence of an injury during training with the national side, but Speed confirmed it was an old injury that was highlighted by a scan.

"He did the warm up on Tuesday, we took him off and he went for a scan on Wednesday and he had an injury there," he said.

"It was an injury from last week and we do our utmost here to make sure we look after the players. Gareth is the most important person in this scenario."

Source: PA