David Brooks has paid thanks to doctors and other medical staff at the Football Association of Wales for their role in detecting his cancer at an early stage. The 24-year-old Bournemouth and Wales forward withdrew from the most recent Wales squad because of illness and confirmed the significance of it on Wednesday in a statement on his social media channels. Brooks, who has won 21 Wales caps, is considered a key figure in the squad as a skillful and creative influence who the national management had hoped would soon rediscover the kind of form that made him a reported target for Manchester United before recent injury problems.