Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy has explained his no-show to Wales boss John Toshack who has accepted the explanation. City admitted that they forgot to tell Wales that the striker was injured and would not be available for Wednesday night's match in the Gradski stadium.

Bellamy is 'far from impressed' that his club failed to inform the FA of Wales that he was not going to make the trip.

One Wales source pointed out: "Can you imagine the uproar had this been John Terry not turning up for England, and Chelsea not telling the English FA before the team flew out for a match?"

Toshack said: "Craig has been in touch with us at the team hotel. Manchester City's statement is self-explanatory.

"We have to accept that. There seems to have been some misunderstanding from within the club there, and the text messages that we have received underline that.

"Now we have a game to play, we want to concentrate on that. Apart from Craig's withdrawal we lost four other players from the squad.

Toshack added: "We have seen what Manchester City have said, but I want to concentrate on our match here. That is vital in our build-up for the next World Cup qualifier with Russia.

On the fact that Bellamy failed to call the Wales HQ himself on Sunday, Toshack said: "All players are different. We have to accept that the lines got crossed between the player and City.

"We got the information a little bit later than we would have liked, to be honest.

"It is understandable we would have liked to have heard a bit earlier, but you have to accept the explanation that has been given to us.

"We would like to think we would have been notified a bit earlier than we were, it was just an accident. We need to concentrate on the game now."