Town defender Lockyer not expecting to win a place in Wales World Cup squad

Tom Lockyer looks to find a team-mate against Newport

Town defender Tom Lockyer isn’t pinning his hopes on winning a place back in the Wales squad for the upcoming World Cup Finals held in Qatar later this year.

The 27-year-old has won 14 caps for his country, but hasn't played since a 0-0 friendly in Finland back in September 2021, missing out on selection entirely in recent months.

Although part of the squad who headed to the delayed UEFA Euro 2020 tournament last year, Lockyer didn’t feature in the tournament, Rob Page’s side reaching the last 16 before being knocked out 4-0 by Denmark.

With Wales in a group containing England, USA and Iran for the tournament that stats in November, the centre half knows that to get anywhere the team he neds to be playing regularly for the Hatters, which might become more difficult following Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup exit to Newport County.

He said: “Being away from the Wales squad for quite a while now has been quite frustrating, so it's not really on the forefront of my mind.

"If anything like that (a call-up) was to happen it would be brilliant, but for that to happen I think I’ll have to be playing regularly for Luton, which now we're out of the cup it’s going to be a bit harder to do.

"All I can do is train hard every day and see what happens.

"It would be brilliant but I'm not expecting anything."