Craig Bellamy monitoring Daniel James fitness before Wales face Northern Ireland | OneFootball

Wales are monitoring Daniel James’ fitness before deciding on his involvement against Northern Ireland on Tuesday, with Leeds United and the national team managing his workload after recent hamstring issues.

According to yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk, James is one of four Leeds players still with Wales this month. He put his nation 1-0 up with a long-range strike in Thursday’s World Cup play-off semi-final against Bosnia but did not finish the 90, and Brennan Johnson and Neco Williams missed their kicks in the shootout. Wales were beaten on penalties.

Despite that, they must play twice during the window and will host Northern Ireland, the other semi-final losers. Whether Craig Bellamy goes full strength to respond or uses the chance to rotate remains open.

Before the play-off, James had started only one game for Leeds since a hamstring tendon injury in November. Bellamy said a cautious approach is needed, noting the winger had only one match in four months and arrived ill. He felt James exceeded expected output against Bosnia but cramped and had to come off, so staff are still checking on him.

Leeds will welcome that stance after a stop-start season. James hopes another club start in the FA Cup at West Ham this weekend can revive his campaign.

Bellamy was not pressed on rotation and could choose Karl Darlow, Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu from the start. Leeds will want all three to return unscathed.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin earned an England call-up and played just over half an hour in Friday’s friendly against Uruguay. He was then sent back to West Yorkshire as first-team players returned and Thomas Tuchel trimmed his squad.

Anton Stach, Ao Tanaka, Noah Okafor and Gabriel Gudmundsson still have a second round of fixtures to navigate. Gudmundsson faces a World Cup decider against Poland on Tuesday evening.

Source: yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk