‘Perfect team player’ – Millwall’s Tom Bradshaw is flying high in goal charts…will Wales international return be on cards next month?

Millwall manager Gary Rowett reckons that “perfect team player” Tom Bradshaw has got to be in strong contention for an international return for Wales.

The 30-year-old striker is joint-third top goalscorer in the Championship and has netted four times in his last two matches.

Bradshaw claimed a second hat-trick of the season in Saturday’s 3-2 win over Sheffield United and then came off the bench to equalise in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with league leaders Burnley at The Den.

The Lions number nine has 11 goals this season – his most since signing for them in 2018. His best haul at this level was 12 for Barnsley in the campaign before he moved to SE16.

Bradshaw’s last Wales cap came against Panama in November 2017.

Cardiff’s Mark Harris, who made Robert Page’s squad for the Qatar World Cup, has only netted three times this season.

Wales face Croatia on March 25 in a European Championship qualifier.

“I would never try and do another manager’s job for them, because it is a hard enough job as it is,” Rowett told the South London Press.

“But, as a neutral, Tom is scoring goals in the Championship and is a perfect team player – whether he starts or comes on to impact a game. He is an absolutely fabulous player to, at the very least, have in your squad as an international manager.

“I imagine if you are Wales then you are looking at Tom Bradshaw again.

“Can he come in and offer something they haven’t got, especially with quite a few senior players retiring? I imagine Wales will have some young players coming through but Tom, in comparison, has been there, seen it and done it.

“He is performing very well at the moment. I’m sure they know all about him. They have to pick what they think is the right squad for them.

“You find very few strikers who will play for the team so wholeheartedly as Bradders. A lot are a little more selfish and don’t want to run quite as much as the manager wants them to run. Bradders is one who just gives you everything and what is nice is that he can score goals.

“He has little runs where he looks really confident and he’s scored goals in his career over a long, long time at different levels.

“He’s been incredible to just keep churning out performances – physically. That’s the big thing for me. He gets battered up there and gives defenders an absolutely torrid time, he doesn’t give them a second’s respite on the ball.

“He is a real all-round striker, he can do everything pretty well. Now he is adding those regular goals, also.”

Rowett took the decision to bench Bradshaw for Tuesday’s match.

“He wanted to play and put himself out there but I put him on the spot and said: ‘Look, how do you feel? We’ve got more games coming up’. He couldn’t train very much before the last game. He was honest and said he wasn’t anywhere near 100 per cent.

“I wanted to make a good decision. Bradders will always say he is fit to play, that’s the type of lad he is.

“I think he’ll be fine for the weekend – good to go. It was more just that he had played a lot of games and his hamstring was tight, he had a bang to the ankle and that had swollen up. It’s one that if he had gone so quickly again then we’d have probably lost him for a period.

“Two or three days without training between games, not much training, is sometimes all you need to get through these periods. I’ve got no doubt he’ll be available for the weekend.”