WALES midfielder Carl Fletcher wants to repay manager John Toshack's faith in him and make Robbie Savage's vacant jersey his own.

Toshack incredibly snubbed Savage ahead of this week's World Cup Group Six double-header against Austria, preferring Fletcher and Sunderland midfielder Carl Robinson as his midfield duo.

Blackburn midfielder Savage has since thrown in the towel on his international career and Fletcher, whose grandmother lives in Ebbw Vale, is ready to step into the breach at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.

"It was nice to have the manager put his confidence in me and Carl (Robinson) and we want to go out and repay him by doing our best for Wales.

"I am sure every player in the squad wants to do his best for the manager, the fans and for himself."

Fletcher admits the loss of such an influential player will be felt in the Wales camp but insists that life goes on.

He said: "Robbie Savage has retired, he has made his decision. He has been a fantastic servant for Wales over the past few years.

"He is a quality player and you are going to miss quality players.

"I don't think there is another player in the world who can replace Robbie Savage but you have to get on with it and at the end of the day it is just 90 minutes, eleven men versus eleven.

"It is the same with the Gary Speeds and Andy Melvilles etc. (who have also retired) but it gives us the chance to find the new Gary Speeds and so on."

The West Ham star was a fringe player under Toshack's predecessor l continued from back Mark Hughes but he did not hold that against the former boss as he made a thinly-veiled dig at the missing Savage.

He said: "Mark Hughes brought me into the squad and if it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be here now.

"Managers have to make decisions. You get a lot of players these days who seem to moan a lot if there not playing and it seems a shame that they just don't get on with it.

"You just have to go and try harder in training on things you can improve on to make them pick you. It is better to do that than to talk about it."

As for the fading World Cup hopes, Fletcher said: "If we thought it was mission impossible then we wouldn't bother turning up.

"A little bit of pressure is off because no-one expects us to qualify and it is the same for Austria, so it has the making of a good game.

"And if we get a win on Saturday, who knows?"