David Brooks eager for World Cup chance with Wales after 2022 injury heartbreak

David Brooks has outlined his ambition to play at the World Cup for Wales after missing out on the 2022 tournament through injury.

Brooks was building up fitness ahead of that competition in Qatar after being declared cancer-free following a Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis in October 2021.

But the 28-year-old Bournemouth forward then suffered a hamstring injury that required surgery and was ruled out of Wales’ first appearance at a World Cup for 64 years.

“I pushed hard to make that squad, but I got injured again and it was obviously too soon,” Brooks said ahead of crunch World Cup qualifiers against Liechtenstein and North Macedonia this week.

“I was just gutted as it was one ambition that wasn’t ticked off.

“I went out for one of the games, but I was sitting there watching and wishing I could play. Simple as that.

“It would be even more special now, at the time of my career that I’m in, and having made it back to the Premier League.

“If I could be part of a squad that plays a big part in getting us there – and then getting to play in it – I think it would be a whole other level of achievement for myself.”

Brooks scored the stoppage-time equaliser against North Macedonia in March that could yet have a crucial bearing on Wales’ qualification hopes.

Wales sit third in Group J and need to win away to Liechtenstein on Saturday and at home to North Macedonia three days later to finish second and give themselves a more favourable draw in the March play-offs.

The Dragons won play-off ties at home against Austria and Ukraine to reach the 2022 World Cup.

“No-one wants to finish third because you could end up pulling a big dog that just misses out and that’s what our mentality is,” Brooks said.

“We want to get the bare minimum of having the home game (in the play-off semi-final) because we felt that was a massive advantage when we were playing Ukraine.

“If you end up playing away in some of these places, it can be an additional difficulty.

“So we’d rather have the home crowd and that support system around us when we go into a game of that magnitude, and we’ll be trying to make that happen over the next two games.

”I do feel with the play-offs, if the other team hasn’t been in a situation like that, it would be a little bit of an advantage.

“If you got a home tie on top of that, these little extras can be the difference in going to a World Cup or not.”