“I thought it was unlikely,” Allen said of whether he thought he would return after standing aside in February 2023.
“I don’t think it’s something you can ever 100% rule out, but when I spoke to Craig Bellamy, I was pretty easily convinced to come back to the setup.
“I’m really grateful to him for giving me the opportunity and it’s up to me now to prove that I’ve still got value and to help this group.”
Which is exactly what he has done in his little time back, impressing with his influence around the camp while his standards at training were enough for usually hard-to-please Bellamy to call him one of the country’s greatest players.
And after a run of games where Wales had been guilty of losing a little control in later stages of matches, Allen’s comeback cameo hinted at what he can offer as he broke up play and positioned himself in the right place at the right times to stop opposition momentum.
“People might think his legs are gone, but he reads the game so well,” observed former striker Helen Ward. “He’s constantly scanning. I watched him closely and he’s always looking over his shoulder, he’s a lesson out there for younger players.”
A returning hero, with a renewed ambition it seems.
Allen said thinking about the World Cup was “looking a bit far ahead” after the “whirlwind” of his return, but added: “I made the last one which was something but [after injury] I probably wasn’t in the best shape going into it.
“It was a flat feeling with how we performed out there and perhaps not what I dreamed of.
“For the group as a whole it’s unfinished business on the back of that. That hunger that’s in this group, I think that’s why it’s there. Every camp, every game that we have between now and when that World Cup comes around, it’s all in preparation to get there and throw everything at it.”
