Aaron Ramsey is confident his fitness concerns are over and he can tackle the challenges of tournament football for Wales at Euro 2020.
Ramsey has been plagued by injury problems over the past few seasons and has missed many club and country games.
But the 30-year-old Juventus midfielder expects his body to withstand the Welsh group schedule of three games in nine days, starting with the tournament opener against Switzerland in Baku on Saturday.
“I feel like I’m in a good place,” said Ramsey, who had minutes under his belt during the Welsh warm-ups against Albania and France last week.
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Ramsey says he worked hard to get his body in a “good place”
“I’ve definitely been working hard over the past few months to get my body back in good shape.
“I feel like the past few years have been frustrating trying to get some consistency going.
“Different environments, different methods, things like that. I wasn’t used to that.
“I’ve been with a club for a very long time and I think it took a lot longer to adjust. I had to change a few things.”
Ramsey’s 11 year stint at Arsenal ended two summers ago when he moved to Italy.
He’s only made 24 league appearances for Juventus during his Serie A spell and his attendance record for Wales is pretty grim read too.
Ramsey has only played 19 of the 44 games Wales have played since reaching the Euro 2016 semi-finals, leading some supporters to question his commitment to the national cause.
“I’m a proud Welshman who wants to play for Wales and help my team as much as possible,” said Ramsey, who joined the official Euro 2016 team at the tournament five years ago in France.
“Missing a few games in the past few years has been very frustrating and difficult.
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“Hopefully that’s behind me now and I can look forward to all these games at the European Championships.
“It’s a different setup with a different environment (for Euro 2016), but we’re all looking forward to going in and waiting for the first whistle.”
Wales will stay in Baku for their second game against Turkey before heading to Rome to face group favorites Italy.
“It’s a very difficult group,” said Ramsey, one of eight survivors from the Welsh squad that reached the last four in France.
“But our goal is to get out of the group, so we have to be fully focused and get started right away.
“For me and the players who have been through all of this, it will be important to help the other guys with it.
“But they’re a good bunch with a lot of quality so I’m sure they’ll be fine.
“We were a year late and so much has happened during that time that we’re just grateful to go out and actually play – even with fans, which will make it very special.”
