Mark Hughes criticises Wales' handling of Joe Allen

Image: Wales' Joe Allen (left) and Austria's Zlatko Junuzovic battle for the ball

Mark Hughes has criticised Wales' handling of Joe Allen after the midfielder returned to Stoke with a hamstring injury.

Allen scored in a 2-2 draw with Austria but then sat out Wales' second World Cup Qualifier against Georgia and is a doubt for Stoke's Premier League game against Sunderland on Saturday.

And Hughes believes the player's fitness was left "compromised" by a heavy training workload.

"We're still checking on Joe, he hasn't trained with the group yet," Hughes told Stoke's club website.

"We've just got to be a little bit careful with him; unfortunately he probably did a little bit too much with the Welsh squad.

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"We would have given him an extra day's rest but he trained with [them] and that's probably compromised him a little bit so they have to be a little bit careful in that regard.

"We're hopeful that he's going to be okay and we'll have to check on him tomorrow [Friday]."

Also See:

Wales boss Chris Coleman has previously clashed with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger over Aaron Ramsey's fitness.

Watch Joe Allen open the scoring for Wales against Austria with a sublime volley.

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