MARK Hughes probably woke up with a banging headache this morning - and all because of a certain pair of fiery Welshmen!

Yesterday's news that Craig Bellamy could be missing for the whole of the Christmas period must have come as a hammer blow to the Blackburn boss.

Of all the players in Hughes' squad, Bellamy is the one he can least afford to be without going into the busiest three weeks of the season.

When he's been fit, the former Newcastle star has usually sparkled for Rovers, either scoring goals himself or making chances for others.

You only have to look at his performances against Chelsea and Manchester United to know what a threat he can be, so the fact he'll be missing from the teamsheet for all the games over Christmas will give all of Rovers' opponents a massive psychological boost before a ball has been kicked.

On his day, Bellamy has the ability to unsettle any defence with his pace and there's no-one else in the squad who can come in and do a similar job.

Shefki Kuqi and Paul Dickov are both willing workers, but they don't have that X-factor which causes opponents to quake in their boots.

Let's just hope today's scan doesn't reveal any serious damage, otherwise you can forget about seeing Craig again until the New Year at the earliest.

As for the other Welshman dominating Sparky's thoughts, I'm sure he's spent some time this week mulling over whether or not to recall Robbie Savage for the game tomorrow against West Ham.

The decision to drop Savage for last week's encounter with Everton was a bold one - but not particularly surprising.

Personally, I don't think Robbie has performed that well this season and maybe last week was the right time to give him a rest.

It might be Mark's way of giving him a kick up the backside and now he'll be hoping to see a positive response.

Sometimes, when a manager pays a lot of money to sign a player, it's easy for that player to become a bit complacent, thinking that guarantees him an automatic place in the team.

I'm not saying that's the case in this instance, but if Mark is prepared to drop a player like Robbie then that sends out a powerful message to the rest of the players that no-one is safe from the axe.

All good managers need to be ruthless and Sparky has proved he can certainly be that.