CARDIFF: Wales have banished Hal Robson-Kanu, Rabbi Matondo and Tyler Roberts from their World Cup squad for breaching Covid-19 protocols.

The trio all featured in Wales’ 1-0 friendly win over Mexico on Saturday and would have been in contention to face Czech Republic in a crucial qualifying tie on Wednesday.

Robson-Kanu, Matondo and Roberts will now return to West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City and Leeds.

Roberts issued an apology on Instagram, writing: “Gutted to be leaving the camp early, but rules are rules and I shouldn’t have been up later in the hotel than the set time.

“Sorry to the team, staff and Wales fans. I will continue to work as hard as I can to earn my place in the squad for the Euros.”

Matondo’s omission from the squad comes a day after Police in Cardiff confirmed they are investigating the origin of racially-motivated social media abuse aimed at the midfielder and team-mate Ben Cabango.

This latest example of racist and abusive messages being directed at footballers led Wales forward Gareth Bale to offer support to calls for a widespread social media boycott.

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