A TRIO of former Newport County AFC players have been drafted into the Wales squad ahead of tomorrow’s friendly in Finland and the crunch World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Estonia.

Robert Page has called up midfielder Josh Sheehan, who left Rodney Parade this summer, defender Brandon Cooper, on loan from Swansea City last season, and striker Mark Harris, another ex-loanee.

Sheehan, Cooper and Cardiff City forward Harris are joined in the squad by Liverpool winger Ben Woodburn, who is currently on loan at Scottish club Hearts.

All four will be in contention to feature in Helsinki tomorrow night, but Cooper then has to fly back to Cardiff rather than travel to Russia for the Belarus game, which has been switched to Kazan.

That’s because Cooper, Chelsea midfielder Ethan Ampadu and Leeds United striker Tyler Roberts were unable to get their Russian visas approved in time.

Uefa had to move the September 5 qualifier to a neutral venue with teams from the UK and the European Union unable to enter Belarus by air due to sanctions against the Minsk government.

The call-ups for the former Exiles and Woodburn came as a result of injuries to midfielders Aaron Ramsey and George Thomas, and defenders Neco Williams and Joe Rodon.

Ramsey, who featured in only 19 of Wales’ previous 44 games before playing at Euro 2020 this summer, suffered a thigh injury while in action for Italian club Juventus on August 22.

The former Arsenal midfielder is said to have a “low-grade lesion of the adductor major muscle of the right thigh”.

FAW medics are speaking to Juventus about possibility of him being available for the Estonia match at Cardiff City Stadium on September 8.

Wales boss Page, who continues to stand in for absent manager Ryan Giggs, has called the decision to play the Belarus game in Kazan – Russia’s fifth-largest city 700km east of Moscow – “crazy”.

“Organising it from a financial and logistical point of view is a nightmare,” Page said after announcing his 27-man squad last week.

“The players will only be aware of it because of the bio-mechanic tests that we’ve got to do.

“We’ve got to get them organised to go to different parts of the UK to get their fingerprints done and get tested.

“We’ve had to pick a larger squad because of the visas, they’ve to be submitted three weeks before we go, which again is crazy.

“Uefa could have picked any neutral venue but they’ve decided on Kazan.”

Meanwhile, Wales Under-21 manager Paul Bodin has added Isaak Davies, Ben Margetson, Keenan Patten and Dan Williams to his squad for Euro 2023 qualifier in Bulgaria on September 7.

Terry Taylor, Christian Norton and Ryan Stirk are ruled out, as is Cooper following his call-up to the senior squad.

And young County striker Lewys Twamley has been called up to the Wales Under-19 squad along with Zac Bell, Caleb Hughes and Marcus Dackers for games against Croatia, Austria and Turkey.