WALES midfielder Joe Morrell will miss next month’s Euro 2024 play-offs after undergoing knee surgery.

Morrell, who has won 37 caps since making his debut in 2019, limped off during Portsmouth’s 2-2 League One draw at Oxford United on January 30.

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho told the club’s official website: “With Joe, there was unfortunately a small piece of cartilage that chipped off his knee, so he’s in for surgery.

“That’s going to be him for the rest of the campaign, although the good news is that we feared it could be ligament damage, which would have seen him out for a lot longer.

“We don’t know how the operation has gone yet – and we hope it’s gone well – but he should be back for pre-season.”

Wales host Finland in a play-off semi-final in Cardiff on March 21, with the winners at home to Poland or Estonia five days later to determine a place at Euro 2024 in Germany.

There is better news for national manager Rob Page with talisman Aaron Ramsey nearing a return to fitness.

The Cardiff and Wales captain, 33, has been sidelined since suffering a knee injury in mid-September, missing Wales’ victory over Croatia and the draws with Armenia and Turkey.

But he was an unused substitute for the Bluebirds’ 1-0 win at Watford last weekend and will hope to return to action against Preston North End at the Cardiff City Stadium tomorrow afternoon.

And he cannot wait for the play-off match against Finland, and to hear the full backing of the Wales fans.

“If someone said to you before that you’d be two home games away from qualifying then you'd have snapped their hands off,” Ramsey said.

“For us to be home again in front of the Red Wall will be huge. Finland are a good team, though, we can't underestimate that, we are going to have to be fully focused on that and hopefully we will have another game to look forward to then.

“The Red Wall is huge. We have had so much success there in front of our fans, this will give us the best opportunity to win the game and qualify.”