Chris Coleman has named Joe Ledley in his 23-man Wales squad for the European Championship finals in France, only 24 days after the Crystal Palace midfielder broke his leg.

Ledley has been facing a race against time to prove his fitness ever since he suffered the injury on May 7th, but Coleman and his staff have been encouraged by the midfielder’s progress and clearly believe that he can recover in time to feature in the group stage.

Whether Ledley will be able to take part in Wales’ opening game against Slovakia on June 11th remains to be seen, but Coleman was always going to give the 29-year-old every chance to prove himself. Ledley was a key player during the qualification campaign and would be a nailed on starter in Coleman’s strongest lineup.

He has resumed light training since suffering the fracture in Crystal Palace’s 2-1 victory over Stoke City and will now step up his training as Wales fine-tune their preparations for France.

“Joe looks very good,” said Coleman. “He trained on the grass in Portugal [where Wales’ pre-tournament training bases is located], albeit with the medical team, but he played a huge part in the campaign and is a big part of this team. The work he has put in is incredible and he looks good.

“With the injury he has had he is ahead of his work in his rehab. We will assess him and we will know more in the next week. But at the moment I think he has a good chance of playing against Slovakia.”

Adam Matthews, Paul Dummett, Wes Burns and, perhaps a little surprisingly, Emyr Huws were left out of the Wales squad.

Wales squad:

Goalkeepers: Wayne Hennessey, Danny Ward, Owain Fon Williams.

Defenders: Chris Gunter, James Chester, Ashley Williams, Ben Davies, Neil Taylor, James Collins, Jazz Richards.

Midfielders: Joe Allen, Joe Ledley, Aaron Ramsey, Andy King, David Edwards, Jonny Williams, David Vaughan, George Williams.

Forwards: Gareth Bale, Hal Robson-Kanu, Sam Vokes, Simon Church, David Cotterill.