David On The Trail Of Ex Team-Mate

David Edwards is closing in towards overhauling Wayne Hennessey and making himself Wolves’ most capped Welsh international of all time.

The record, which relates only to games actually played while on the books at Molineux, has been held for several years by the keeper, who returned from a back spasm to face England in Lens on Thursday.

Forty-one of his 58 senior caps were won before he left these parts for Crystal Palace on the last day of January, 2014 but Edwards has a much bigger percentage of matches played during his time of service in the West Midlands.

He made his first two Wales appearances while with Luton but has since played another 32 as a Wolves player and, assuming he faces Russia tomorrow, will narrow the gap between himself and his former club colleague to only eight outings.

A third member of Wales’ 2016 squad, Sam Vokes, has reached the 40-cap mark, more than 20 of those coming when he had Wolves as his parent club, albeit often when he was out on loan elsewhere.

Here are ten other things you may not have known of a Wolves-Wales connection:

* Carl Robinson and Sam Ricketts, both of whom won most of their international honours while elsewhere, have each picked up 52 caps.

* Former Wolves manager Dean Saunders is the proud holder of 75 Welsh caps and scored 22 goals for them.

* Adrian Williams, the centre-half whose four years at Molineux were wrecked by injury, won five of his 13 caps while at Molineux and was here when he scored his only international goal – against Denmark.

* Dave Edwards’ debut was as a substitute for Carl Robinson in a game against the Republic of Ireland in 2007.

* Kenny Jackett won 31 Welsh caps in a senior international career spanning from 1982 to 1988.

* Wayne Hennessey is due to move into the top 20 of his country’s all-time record appearance makers during Euro 2016 but still has some way to go to catch Wales’s record cap holder, Neville Southall (92).

* Carl Robinson turns 40 this autumn and was named man of the match on his debut against Belarus in 1999.

* Wayne Hennessey once scored from a 40-yard free-kick for Wales in an under-19 game against Turkey.

* George Berry’s five-cap Welsh career kicked off after a West Midlands journalist tipped off the country’s management about his availability….although he was born in West Germany.

* And who can forget that Ryan Green, who enjoyed fleeting fame both with Wolves and Wales, became his country’s youngest international when he faced Malta away in 1998?