Higher sickness levels among Arriva Trains Wales drivers have seen trains cancelled as England prepares for their Euro 2016 encounter with Wales.

But union representatives have said they doubt it has anything to do with the big game, which kicks off at 2pm today.

Short of calling it a cancellation on their website the company said one service, the 19.34 from Llandudno to Crewe, will 'be started from Chester . This train will no longer call at North Wales stations due to a shortage of train drivers'.

Similarly the 19.34 service from Cardiff to Holyhead and Llandudno to Chester will terminate at Chester because of driver shortages.

The company, which says it will be drafting more drivers in over the next few weeks, apologised to customers.

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A spokeswoman for Arriva Trains Wales said: “Unfortunately we have seen higher sickness levels amongst our drivers than usual leading to some service cancellations today.

“We would like to apologise to our customers for the inconvenience caused. We can also confirm that we will be having more drivers joining our team over the forthcoming weeks and months.”

Brian Corbett, district officer for train drivers’ union Aslef, said: “I don’t know whether it’s for the football but I can’t see our guys taking a day off for the football.

“Everything seems to run smoothly usually. I don’t know of any problems at all.

“The only thing I can say from a driver’s point of view is we believe Arriva need more drivers.

“For a company that has 650-675 drivers they had 6,000 rest days worked last year.

“We have argued quite strongly that if they are working that amount of rest days they want their days off.”