The assistant manager, Kit Symons, stepped in to face the media and take training in Skopje but insisted the incident would have no effect on Wales' performance in their Group A tie.
The manager could not travel with the rest of the Wales team from Cardiff airport and instead made the journey to Skopje from Heathrow via Vienna.
Rebuilt after an earthquake in 1963 wiped out most of the city, Skopje, the capital of the ex-Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, was for years characterised by ugly concrete blocks and strange empty spaces.
And if Macedonian heroes are to be celebrated in statue form, surely space can be found for a few more Albanians (Skopje-born Mother Teresa and Skanderbeg, a medieval hero, are already represented).For Saso Ordanoski, a local commentator, Skopje 2014 is an "ugly, money-wasting, architecturally failed and politically lunatic project".
One article suggests Muslims in the Sandzak region of Serbia fear they may be the next victims of ethnic cleansing; another reports on the Kosovan refugees in Skopje, the Macedonian capital.
A plaque dedicated on January 13th to a pro-Bulgarian assassin in Skopje was also reportedly destroyed in what is becoming a tradition every time it is replaced.Presevo is a small, overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian town in south Serbia, close to the border with Albanian-dominated Kosovo.
So when the Macedonians said they planned to put up a statue of Alexander in the centre of Skopje, many assumed it was a joke to rile the Greeks, who see him as central to their history and culture.
Sundance DiGiovanni, of Major League Gaming, suggests that wielding a mouse may require as much skill as a baseball batMost recommended by readers Remembering Aaron Swartz Commons manPress freedom Street politics in ChinaAmerica's fiscal challenges It's not them, it's youThe great innovation debate Governments need to help innovationRevamping Skopje Macedonia's new story for its capital.
China's exchanges suffered from too much interest; others hit the opposite problemMost recommended by our readersMajoritarianism Zombie democracyRevamping Skopje Stones of contentionFares Maybe buses should be freeThe G8 summit Reasons to be cheerfulDaily chart High spiritsFeatured comment"Religion has no place in the democratic governance of any state.
Educated, in law, at Skopje University and then at a Protestant theological college in the United States, he had brains, skills and, not least, that command of English which endears foreign politicians to Americans.
While Serbs and ethnic Albanians are still fighting across the border in Kosovo less than an hour's drive from Skopje, Macedonia's capital Macedonia itself is still peaceful.
