The player behind Dafydd Iwan's iconic Yma o Hyd rendition revealed as Wayne Hennessey to get ultimate Wales honour

Wales have adopted Dafydd Iwan's legendary song as their own dressing room anthem under Rob Page

Wayne Hennessey will captain Wales against Czech Republic on what will be the goalkeeper's 100th cap for his country.

The Bangor-born shot stopper made his 99th appearance for Wales in the 2-1 World Cup play-off semi-final victory over Austria last week. And he will mark his century by wearing the armband at Cardiff City Stadium on Tuesday night, Rob Page has confirmed.

"Yeah, I think rightly so, he deserves that," said the head coach when asked if the 35-year-old will skipper the hosts in Cardiff. "He's going to get his 100th cap. To lead the boys out is a great honour and I would love to give him the armband to do that.

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"He's an absolute legend of this football team. For what he's given to the country over the years, he deserves all of the plaudits he's going to get."

On the landmark occasion, the Burnley goalkeeper said: "It means a lot. I'm a North Walian and my hero growing up was Neville Southall, and Nev reached 92 caps. I absolutely adore Nev and I thought he was one of the best goalkeepers in the world at the time. But for myself, it's a massive achievement for myself and my family. It's going to be a huge occasion and I can't wait."

Wales will be without Ben Davies and Dylan Levitt against the Czechs, with Page promising to give fringe players the chance to impress ahead of what will be a huge month for the Red Dragons in June. They face the Netherlands twice while also taking on Belgium and Poland in addition to locking horns with either Scotland or Ukraine in the World Cup play-off final.

"The important game for us is done. Thankfully we got the positive result. There's a few stiffs bodies out there, Aaron [Ramsey] and Gareth [Bale]. Joe's [Rodon] taken a knock as well so we'll assess them before we select our 23," added Page.

"This gives me an opportunity to see some of the fringe players, to see some of the players who didn't play on Thursday evening who haven't played a lot of minutes for us at international level who are doing really well at club level. It gives us an opportunity to use it as an exercise to give them minutes, have a look at them at this level and expose them to international football ahead of a big month in June."

Ahead of the clash with Austria, Dafydd Iwan sang a stirring rendition of his famous anthem Yma o Hyd to a packed Cardiff City Stadium crowd. The Red Wall played their part in lifting the noise levels ahead of what proved to be a glorious night for Welsh football, with the great Mr Iwan himself reduced to tears after hearing more than 32,000 supporters belt out his iconic song.

During Euro 2020, Connor Roberts revealed he listens to Yma o Hyd before every Wales match, and Page has revealed Chris Gunter was the inspiration behind the tune the country's official football anthem.

"I've managed at club level and played international football, I've never experienced a relationship between staff, players and supporters like this before in my career, it's something special," Page added.

"IG [head of communications Ian Gwyn Hughes] and Mark Evans [head of international affairs] have got to take full credit for getting that relationship. Music's a big part of it. We just mentioned Yma o Hyd, that's a massive anthem for us now. Chris Gunter started it. We played it everyday before training and on the coach, and that's something we've got now as our anthem. It's a big part of what we're all about.

"The song is very poignant to what we're all about. We can all relate to it. We're all passionate Welsh people who love our country."

Kick-off between Wales and Czech Republic is at 7:45pm on Tuesday night.