Stoke City coach Mark Hughes has hit out at Wales’ handling of midfielder Joe Allen after he returned from international duty with a hamstring injury.
The former Liverpool star has been in superb form in the last few weeks, scoring on two occasions for both club and country.
He scored the opening goal in the 2-2 draw with Austria thanks to a fabulous strike, but he was forced to sit out Wales’ second 2018 World Cup qualifier against Georgia on Sunday.
Chris Coleman’s men were eventually held to a 1-1 draw in Cardiff and Allen’s energy in midfielder was a big loss.
Hughes could now be without that creativity for Saturday’s Premier League clash with Sunderland and the former Fulham boss insists he has been left disappointed.
Coleman has clashed with Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger in the past over Aaron Ramsey and Hughes believes Allen should have been protected.
“We’re still checking on Joe, he hasn’t trained with the group yet,” Hughes told Stoke’s club website. “We’ve just got to be a little bit careful with him; unfortunately he probably did a little bit too much with the Welsh squad.
“We would have given him an extra day’s rest but he trained with [them] and that’s probably compromised him a little bit so they have to be a little bit careful in that regard.
“We’re hopeful that he’s going to be okay and we’ll have to check on him tomorrow [Friday].” Stoke are priced at 2.00 to beat Sunderland, with the draw 3.50, while the Black Cats are priced at odds of 3.80 with Dafabet.
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