Collins returns to Welsh fold
Friday, 26 January 2007 14:23Sunderland defender Danny Collins is back in the Wales squad after apologising to manager John Toshack for saying that he did not want to play for his country while the former Real Madrid boss was in charge.
Collins, 26, had a row with Toshack at the team hotel following the goalless friendly with Paraguay last March, when he had been left on the substitutes' bench as 17-year-old Lewin Nyatanga made his full Wales debut.
Collins was upset that he had been overlooked that night in Cardiff and let Toshack know.
But he has been recalled for the friendly against Northern Ireland in Belfast on 6 February after talks with the national manager.
Toshack said: 'Danny was very disappointed after the Paraguay game when Nyatanga made his debut, and he relayed that disappointment to me.
'He told me he didn't want to play for Wales again while I was manager, so I haven't picked him since.
'But after we played Liechtenstein in November he contacted me and said he had been hasty, what he'd said had been a mistake and he regretted it.
'I told him that I would consider him in the future, and that is what I have done. There's no promises, but he maybe saw that we had the likes of Steve Evans and Craig Morgan in the squad and that he should be there too.
'Now we are without key defenders, James Collins, Danny Gabbidon and Mark Delaney, who are all injured. So although Evans and Morgan have been included again, I felt that it was time to give him another chance.'
Toshack has also called in Wycombe striker Jermaine Easter for the first time, while Blackburn goalkeeper Jason Brown has been left out, seemingly because he is not playing first-team football at Ewood Park.
Wales are due to play Ireland in Croke Park on Saturday, 24 March.
Wales squad to play Northern Ireland at Windsor Park on February 6: P Jones (QPR), Ward (Sunderland), Price (Ipswich), Bale (Southampton), Duffy (Swansea), Morgan (Peterborough), Nyatanga (Derby), Ricketts (Hull), S Davies (Fulham), Fletcher (Crystal Palace), Koumas (WBA), Ledley (Cardiff), Robinson (Norwich), Vaughan (Crewe), Bellamy (Liverpool), Cotterill (Wigan), C Davies (Wolves), Easter (Wycombe), D Collins (Sunderland), Giggs (Man Utd), Parry (Cardiff), Llewellyn (Wrexham), S Evans (Wrexham), Valentine (Wrexham).
