Neco Williams has revealed extra training sessions on his days off at Liverpool have been key to building his match fitness in time for the European Championship finals.
The 20-year-old has started Wales’s past three matches, including the stalemate against Albania on Saturday, but made just three starts and three substitute appearances in the league for Jürgen Klopp’s side last season.
Williams is one of several players who arrived on camp short of regular game-time but the defender, who looks ready to start Wales’s Group A opener against Switzerland on Saturday, said increasing his workload at Liverpool by doing individual sessions has helped to allay fitness concerns.
“If you haven’t played as much football then you have to look after your body in terms of doing extra at training, coming in on your days off, and doing more running,” Williams said. “That’s exactly what I have been doing. You can’t just rely on your club to try and gain your fitness if you aren’t playing regular football.
“I knew I had a big chance of earning myself a place in the squad and if I wanted to get my fitness to the highest level then I needed to do extras. I needed to do runs after training or games.”
The minutes given to Aaron Ramsey, Ben Davies and Joe Allen in the buildup to Euro 2020 have been carefully managed by the stand-in manager Robert Page and the trio featured in both of the friendlies last week. Ramsey played an hour on his first Wales start since October.
Davies said he feared he might miss the tournament because of a calf tear but is ready to start against Switzerland after coming through friendlies against France and Albania unscathed.
“As time went on there were definitely concerns,” the defender said of an injury that put him out of action for three months. “It has been nice to get the minutes under my belt. I feel good and I feel ready.
“You could say some players haven’t had enough games but given the season we have had and the number of games going on this year, if we are coming into it with a bit of freshness then I will take it.”
Davies is one of eight survivors from the Wales squad that reached the semi-finals five years ago and he is adamant they can match that feat this time. “I think it has been a while since all of us boys from 2016 have been on the pitch together due to injuries and other circumstances,” he said.
“With that base and everyone fit and good young players coming through, there is no reason why we can’t reach those same levels.”
