David Brooks says playing England at Wembley will help Welsh preparations for their massive World Cup qualifier against Belgium next month.

Wales make the short trip for a friendly with Thomas Tuchel’s side on October 9 before hosting Belgium in Cardiff four days later.

The Dragons must beat Belgium and also win November World Cup qualifiers against Liechtenstein and North Macedonia to have any chance of topping Group J and booking automatic qualification for the 2026 finals.

Wales are almost certainly guaranteed to be in the March play-offs after winning their Nations League group last autumn.

“England is going to be a tough warm-up for Belgium,” said Warrington-born Bournemouth forward Brooks, who was capped by the country of his birth at Under-20 level before switching his allegiance to Wales.

“I feel the better the opposition the better prep it will be. We’re a team where most are playing two games a week, and the boys in the Premier League should be used to that intensity.

“We all want to play against England and play in the second game as well.

“We won’t be shying away from it, but the gaffer (Craig Bellamy) won’t play the same team in the two games anyway.

“He obviously trusts the squad and the depth that we have. Everyone just needs to arrive healthy and fit and just take it from there.”

Wales suffered the second defeat of Bellamy’s 12-game reign on Tuesday as Canada prevailed at Swansea through Derek Cornelius’ brilliant free-kick.

Bellamy named a much-changed team from Thursday’s World Cup qualifying victory in Kazakhstan and handed debuts to Cardiff pair Joel Colwill and Ronan Kpakio – who won his first cap at the age of 18 – and Coventry midfielder Kai Andrews.

Brooks said: “Although the gaffer wanted to win two games, if you gave him the ultimatum of one we’d have picked the first one to still give us a chance in the group.

“We’ve got a very good team mainly playing in the qualifiers and a lot of young talent on show (against Canada) that did really well.

“Belgium have got world-class players and they are a very good outfit, but I don’t think they’ll want to play there (at Cardiff City Stadium).

“They’ve had some tough games there before and we want to make it as uncomfortable for them as possible.”

Wales lost 4-3 to Belgium in June after fighting back from 3-0 down, being denied an invaluable point by Kevin De Bruyne’s late strike.

Brooks said: “Being three down was our fault as a collective, but I thought we were the better side and a lot of positives came out of that game.”