By Jake Sanders
TOM Bradshaw admitted that the prospect of featuring at Euro 2020 has given him the extra motivation to win his place back in Ryan Giggs’ Wales squad after his recent omission.
The 27-year-old, who missed out Wales’ incredible run to the Euro 2016 semi-finals with a calf injury, has not played for his country since a 6-0 victory over China in Giggs’ first game in charge back in January 2018 and was left out of the squad for their crucial qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Hungary over the past seven days – in which they secured their place at next summer’s finals.
Bradshaw bagged five goals in as many matches during October – and was slightly surprised to be overlooked by the former Manchester United man.
But Millwall’s top goalscorer, whose seven goals this term is more than any other Welsh player this season, is already looking towards next summer’s tournament and knows that if he continues to score goals, he won’t keep being ignored.
“As a player, all you can try and do is play as well as you can for your club, score as many goals as you can and hope that’s enough to get the call-up,” Bradshaw said. “I felt like I did my job that month [October], got a nomination for Player of the Month, scored five goals in five games and I did everything that I could.
“Ryan Giggs obviously thought maybe he had better options or more suited options. I can only keep doing what I am doing and keep trying to play well for Millwall and hopefully the rewards will come.
“Every footballer on the planet wants to play for their country and do their country and their family proud. I will always be striving for that, I will always have that in the back of my mind that if I am doing well I will get a call-up. I will keep my head down, keep trying to score as many goals as possible and keep trying to get as many points on the board for Millwall.”
*Bradshaw spoke exclusively to Southwark News this week. Read a longer interview in Thursday’s print edition.