Wales forward Johnson to miss Croatia match

Wales forward Brennan Johnson has not travelled to Croatia for the Euro 2024 qualifier against the World Cup semi-finalists.

There had been fears around the 21-year-old's fitness after he picked up a groin injury on 11 March.

Johnson did play a full 90 minutes six days later against Newcastle United but has not joined up with Rob Page's squad in Split.

Croatia host Wales on Saturday at the Stadion Poljud (19:45 GMT).

Johnson will stay at Nottingham Forest for further assessment of his injury, and has not been ruled out of Wales' match on Tuesday against Latvia.

Wales were already preparing to field a new-look team after a whole host of injuries and retirements.

They are beginning life without their men's top goalscorer and greatest modern day footballer - Gareth Bale.

Joe Allen, Chris Gunter and Jonny Williams followed Bale in announcing their decisions to call time on their international careers.

On the injury front, Tottenham defender Ben Davies has withdrawn from the squad with a suspected hamstring problem, while Johnson's team-mate Wayne Hennessey is also unavailable.

In total there are seven uncapped players in Page's squad - Morgan Fox, Tom King, Jordan James, Nathan Broadhead, Luke Harris, Oli Cooper and Liam Cullen.

With Johnson sidelined, Wales will most likely have to field a forward line comprised of players struggling for minutes at club level.

Fulham's Harry Wilson and Daniel James have one start between them in 2023, and have totalled just 196 minutes of football in that time.

Bournemouth striker Kieffer Moore has played just one minute since starting against Nottingham Forest on 21 January.

The most in-form forward available to Page is Millwall's Tom Bradshaw, who is back in the Wales squad for the first time since March 2018.

Bradshaw has scored 14 goals in the Championship, including two hat-tricks, winning the division's player of the month award for February.