Wrexham’s Kieffer Moore to miss Wales’ World Cup play-offs

Wrexham striker, Kieffer Moore, has been ruled out of Wales’ World Cup play-offs with a hamstring injury.

The 33-year-old had been a major doubt since sustaining a tendon split during the FA Cup defeat against Chelsea earlier this month.

Having missed subsequent Championship matches against Hull City and Swansea City, Moore is not expected to return to action until April.

That means he will be unavailable for Wales’ World Cup play-off semi-final against Bosnia-Herzegovina on 26 March and, if they win that game, their play-off final against Italy or Northern Ireland five days later.

“Kieffer’s not going to be right for the internationals, which is a blow for him and for Wales,” said Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson.

“He’s got this tendon injury which he feels OK with, but he’s shown up on the scan and it’s one of those injuries that, up to 80-85% you’re fine, but if you extend beyond that you make yourself susceptible to muscle injuries.”

Wrexham wing-back Liberato Cacace is also on the sidelines for his club, the latest setback in an injury-ravaged first season for the New Zealander since his move from Italian side Empoli last summer.

“Libby will miss New Zealand’s internationals and we’ve just got to focus on getting him to hopefully contribute for the end of the season,” said Parkinson.

“Because he’s had a couple of setbacks, I don’t really want to put any pressure or time scale on him.

“But it’s not a major injury, it’s just he keeps getting slight setbacks, which is obviously not him. We just do everything we can to get him to contribute.”