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Wales manager Jayne Ludlow has hailed captain Sophie Ingle as one of the best players in English top flight football as Wales prepare to face Estonia next week in preparation for two key Euro 2021 qualifiers.

Ludlow has named a 24-player squad to face Estonia in a friendly next Friday ahead of key qualifiers with Faroe Islands and Norway in April.

Forward Natasha Harding makes her return following a knee injury but Jess Fishlock is absent as she continues her recovery from ACL surgery in America, while Wales are also without defender Gemma Evans and the versatile Elise Hughes.

One player who Wales will be hoping can continue her club form for her country is Wales captain and Chelsea favourite Sophie Ingle, who has notched up four goals and one assist from 15 appearances in the Women's Super League this season.

Asked if it's a consideration to play the defender further up the field given her goal count, Ludlow said: "She's probably been one of the best players in the WSL this season and it's absolutely fantastic for her personally, but she has to keep doing it, and obviously for us.

"Sophie, for me, is a deep lying centre-mid or centre-back and that's where [Chelsea Women manager] Emma Hayes sees her too, so we're on a similar thought process there.

"Does Sophie have the ability, depending on who we're playing against national team-wise, to play any position bar goalkeeper? Yeah. She won't like me saying that, to be fair.

"She fits in a certain part of our team, and she does a superb job there."

(Image: Getty Images)

Elsewhere, Wales' most-capped footballer Fishlock is progressing well with her rehab after tearing her ACL last year.

"We had a good conversation in the last week with her based around what her medical team, the information they're giving us.

"It's not suitable for her to come and pretty much miss a week of the progression and her rehab to do the flying over and back [from Seattle-based Reign FC]. It didn't make sense.

"It's all positive, but right now we don't want to interrupt that in any way, shape or form, so she'll be joining us in April."

On Harding's return, after missing the November draw against Northern Ireland, Ludlow added: "It's great to have one of our most experienced players back, and obviously our vice captain.

"She makes a huge difference to the environment that's created throughout the camp and obviously the performance levels we can put on the pitch when she's available: she lifts those for us."

(Image: Gareth Everett/Huw Evans Agency)

Ludlow will be coming up against her predecessor Jarmo Matikainen, who was Wales boss between 2010 and 2014, for the friendly on Friday, March 6 (7pm kick-off).

Wales currently sit second in their Euro qualifying group, four points behind leaders Norway.

The squad, announced in a special video by girls involved in the FAW Trust’s Huddle scheme (encouraging girls aged five to 12 to get involved in football), features six players below the age of 20; uncapped Cardiff City defender Maria Francis-Jones is the youngest player in the squad at the age of 16 as Wales go to Wrexham for the first time since 2012.

But one talented youngster not in the mix is 16-year-old Carrie Jones, who made her senior Wales international debut aged just 15 last summer - due to her GCSE studies.

Ludlow said: "We organised a meeting for that one, that wasn't a phone or email conversation!"She's a GCSE student right now and this time of year is a bit complicated for her.

"She's still competing in our 17s national team who are in an elite phase competition in the next three weeks.

"Right now, the kid needs to get some good results at the end of the year, because longer term it's important to her.

"Being a parent, I understand that. Her mum was thankful, I think, that we have taken her out of this. And she didn't like it, basically!"

Wales squad: Laura O’Sullivan (Cardiff City), Claire Skinner (Cardiff City), Olivia Clark (Huddersfield Town), Sophie Ingle (Chelsea), Hayley Ladd (Manchester United), Loren Dykes (Bristol City), Lily Woodham (Charlton Athletic, on loan from Reading), Rhiannon Roberts (Liverpool), Anna Filbey (Tottenham Hotspur), Angharad James (Reading), Jasmine Turner (Cardiff City), Josie Green (Tottenham Hotspur), Nadia Lawrence (Cardiff City), Georgia Walters (Blackburn Rovers), Rachel Rowe (Reading), Natasha Harding (Reading), Megan Wynne (Bristol City, on loan from Tottenham Hotspur), Chloe Williams (Manchester United), Helen Ward (Watford), Kayleigh Green (Brighton & Hove Albion), Grace Horrell (Cardiff City), Maria Francis-Jones (Cardiff City), Ffion Morgan (Coventry United), Charlie Estcourt (CharltonAthletic, on loan from Reading).