Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey may be benched for…

Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey may be benched for England game hints Rob Page

Wales manager Rob Page has stated that star players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey may begin Tuesday's crunch game with England on the substitutes bench.

The duo have been two of Wales' longest serving stars and between them have made made over 185 appearances for the National team. However, the pair have both struggled for gametime at their clubs this season and have come in for some criticism for their performances in the Iran game.

Bale, 33, has played every minute of Wales' World Cup campaign so far while Ramsey played the entirety of the USA game and was substituted in the 87th minute of the 2-0 defeat to Iran. With such a congested schedule, Welsh manager Page has indicated that he may freshen things up for tonight's huge game with England.

Manager Page said: “It’s a big ask for anybody in this environment to go four days later.

“I’m going to pick a team that I think can go out and compete against England, whether that’s with or without them. I’m not going to give that away.

“If they don’t start, can they can make an impact? That’s always been my dilemma playing games in quick succession.

“If they start one game, can they start the next? My thought process won’t be any different.

“Whether they come on and have an impact or start and last an hour or 90 minutes, they are talented footballers.

“We’re all getting criticism now and rightly so because results aren’t going our way and that’s the industry we’re in.

“We’re big enough to take it – it’s not a problem. We put our big boy pants on and get on with it.”

Wales must win to have any chance of keeping their World Cup hopes alive. They need to win by four goals and hope the Iran v USA game ends in a draw for Wales to go through.

The Welsh have never beaten England by a four-goal margin in 103 games between the countries. And to make the task even more daunting, Wales have not beaten England since a Mark Hughes strike secured a 1-0 win in 1984.

“We’ve worked so hard to get into this position. My frustration and disappointment for the players is that we’ve shown nowhere near the levels of performance that have got us to this World Cup.

“We’ve picked them up, we’ve addressed it, we’ve got to draw a line under it, the last performance.

“Irrespective of the other result, whether we go home or whether we go through, we have to give a performance that our supporters can be proud of.

“We want to react in a positive manner and I’ll pick a team that’ll go out and give everything to the cause.”