Wales Women Name Three for World Cup Qualifiers as Ladd Withdraws Injured

Cymru head coach Rhian Wilkinson has named a 23-strong squad for Wales Women's June World Cup qualifiers against the Republic of Ireland and the Netherlands, with the Football Association of Wales confirming on 27 May that experienced forward Kayleigh Green, midfielder Jess Fishlock and goalkeeper Olivia Clark form part of a group built around the spine of the side that pushed England hard in last summer's Euro 2025 qualifying group.

The headline from the announcement is what is missing. Ffion Morgan, the Bristol City winger capped 14 times since her 2022 debut, was forced to withdraw after sustaining an ankle injury in training with her club, according to the FAW release. Her absence strips Wilkinson of a direct runner who had started three of Wales' last four competitive fixtures, and will force a reshuffle on the left flank going into two fixtures that already looked awkward on paper.

The Ladd problem

Jess Ladd, the Cardiff City Ladies midfielder who made her senior debut against Kosovo in November 2024, has also pulled out of the squad through injury. The FAW medical team described the issue as a recurring calf complaint that the 24-year-old and her club had been managing for several weeks, with a decision taken after consultation not to risk aggravation before the autumn international window. Wales staff privately accept that losing Ladd removes a pressing option from the bench that they had been building around for the Ireland tie in particular, given Ireland's preference for sitting deep and counter-attacking through the channels.

Green's inclusion steadies the front line. The 27-year-old, who joined Crystal Palace from Bristol City in February and has four goals in her last six WSL appearances, gives Wales an out-and-out number nine whose movement fits Wilkinson's preference for a 4-3-3 that becomes a 4-1-4-1 without the ball. Fishlock, now 38 and still operating at the top of the NWSL with Seattle Reign, remains the on-pitch reference point for a squad whose average age drops every cycle but whose tactical literacy still runs through her. Clark, recently first-choice at Liverpool following the departure of Rachael Laws to Manchester United, takes the gloves in a position that has been quietly contested for two years.

Squad shape and the qualifying picture

The broader 23-player group leans heavily on the Bristol City and Liverpool corridors that supply roughly half the squad, with five players from each club, plus a contingent of dual-nationality choices that the FAW has been methodical about converting. Three uncapped players are included: midfielder Carrie Jones, who has impressed at Birmingham in the Championship, forward Hannah Cain, and defender Mayzee Davies, the 19-year-old who captained Wales at the 2024 U-19 European Championship in Lithuania. None are there to make up numbers. Wales need depth, and Wilkinson's message to the group has been that the bench matters as much as the XI in a qualifying campaign that is six points from a play-off and four from automatic contention.

Wales sit third in Group A2 after four matches, level on points with the Republic of Ireland and three behind group leaders the Netherlands, with a game in hand against both. The arithmetic is unforgiving. A win in Dublin on 7 June would take Wales above Ireland and set up a winner-takes-it-all fixture against the Dutch in Cardiff three days later; anything less, and the automatic route closes. UEFA's revised qualifying format, confirmed in the governing body's 2024 circular to member associations, sends only the group winners directly to the 2027 Brazil World Cup, with the four best runners-up entering a two-legged play-off in late October. Wales have not been in this position of late-cycle leverage since the run-in to the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, when they were beaten by the Republic in a play-off decided by a stoppage-time goal.

The Irish backdrop

Ireland arrive in Dublin under Eileen Gleeson, the former Arsenal and Leicester coach appointed in October 2024 on a two-year mandate that explicitly tied her contract renewal to reaching the 2027 tournament. Her squad contains Katie McCabe, the Arsenal captain whose delivery from wide areas set up three of Ireland's four goals against France in October, and Denise O'Sullivan, the North Carolina Courage midfielder whose availability has been a chronic question mark since her concussion lay-off in spring 2024. Gleeson has preferred a 4-4-2 that becomes a 4-2-3-1 against stronger opposition, with McCabe pushed high from left-back. Wales beat that shape 2-0 in Wrexham in December, but the return fixture is at Tallaght, where Ireland have won seven and drawn two of their last ten competitive home matches.

What to watch

Two structural questions will define the window. First, whether Wilkinson trusts a 4-3-3 with Fishlock at the base of midfield or reverts to the double pivot that closed out the Ireland win in December. The latter gives more security against McCabe's wide runs but concedes possession in zones where Ceri Holland and Sophie Ingle are less effective. Second, whether the Morgan-Ladd absences push Cain or the uncapped forward Celyn Salisbury into the starting XI, or whether Wilkinson asks Green to operate as a lone nine with two attacking eights. The early-week training sessions in Newport will tell more than Wednesday's pre-match press conference.

The squad travels to a closed training camp in the Vale of Glamorgan on 2 June before flying to Dublin the day before the Ireland match. Wales return to the Cardiff City Stadium for the Netherlands fixture on 10 June, a stadium that holds just over 33,000 and has hosted the women's team's last three competitive home fixtures, all sold out.