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Wayne Hennessey to play through pain as Wales prepare to face England

Wayne Hennessey
Image: Wayne Hennessey is hoping to play in Wales' match against England on Thursday

Wayne Hennessey will have a pain-killing injection in his back to play in Wales' second Euro 2016 Group B match against England on Thursday.

The Crystal Palace goalkeeper missed Wales' 2-1 victory over Slovakia in Bordeaux on Saturday after suffering a back spasm in training. 

Liverpool stopper Danny Ward, who made his first start for Wales against Slovakia, impressed in Hennessey's absence as Wales secured an opening game win thanks to goals from Gareth Bale and Hal Robson-Kanu. 

But Hennessey is hoping to return to Chris Coleman's starting XI for Wales' 'Battle of Britain' clash with England at the Stade Felix Bollaert-Delelis in Lens. 

"I had one [spasm] and missed the Liverpool game at home for Crystal Palace," Hennessey said.

Wales' goalkeeper Danny Ward eyes the ball during the Euro 2016 group B football match between Wales and Slovakia at the Stade de Bordeaux in Bordeaux
Image: Danny Ward (C) impressed on his first start for Wales

"I had a similar one. So I'll have an injection now and I will probably be back in 24 hours which sounds crazy.

"It is one of those things that you go from broke to mended in about 24 hours. It was an unsettling time for myself, but our motto is 'Together Stronger' and it is all about the boys.

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"I thought Danny did really well, it was a big situation for him to come in but I thought he was tremendous."

Hennessey, who has made 56 appearances for Wales, kept seven clean sheets in 10 qualifying matches, conceding just four goals.

BORDEAUX, FRANCE - JUNE 11: Wales player Gareth Bale (R) of Wales celebrates his team's second goal scored by Hal Robson-Kanu (C) as Joe Ledley (l) looks o
Image: Gareth Bale (R) celebrates Wales' opening Group B win over Slovakia on Saturday

Meanwhile, midfielder Aaron Ramsey insists Wales will focus on themselves and not be too concerned about England when they meet on Thursday. 

"We wanted to start off well in this competition and we've managed to do that," he said. 

"We work hard for each other, we have quality going forward and we are ready to take on anybody.

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"They have a lot of good players, who are quite dangerous individually.

"They had a faultless [qualifying] campaign. But we will focus on ourselves and what we need to do to try and get something out of the game."

Wales' midfielder Aaron Ramsey (L) vies for the ball against Slovakia's midfielder Miroslav Stoch during the Euro 2016 group B football match between Wales
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"There might be a couple of texts, but we are simply focused on trying to win the game now," he added.

"We'll approach [the England game] like we did this one, we will work on that in training this week.

"We've been waiting for this moment for a long time, to experience what we experienced against Slovakia was fantastic.

"It was quite emotional when the anthems were being sung.

"We had to pinch ourselves to stop the tears coming down, it was really spine-tingling."

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