June 1 – Saddled with key injuries, England women’s head coach Sarina Wiegman (pictured) has been forced to name several relatively untried players in her squad of 23 for the upcoming World Cup.
With skipper Leah Williamson one of those ruled out, Millie Bright will be England captain even though she has not featured since March after picking up a knee injury.
There had been some hopes among England fans that striker Beth Mead may have been included after her ACL injury in November, but she has not been named. Fran Kirby also misses out with injury, alongside Williamson.
Speaking after her squad was announced, Wiegman said: “Millie is in a good place. She’s still positive and she’s building. But we have some time so she’ll be with us too. It looks good.”
Tottenham striker Bethany England – who scored 12 goals in just 12 WSL games for Spurs following her record-breaking January move from Chelsea – has also been called up.
She was part of the Euro 2022-winning squad, but has missed out on international football since September. However, her fine club form has seen her earn a recall in time for the summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand.
Manchester United captain Katie Zelem will also feature in her first major tournament squad, having been cut from Wiegman’s initial 28-player squad before the Euros last summer. Niamh Charles, Laura Coombs, Lauren James, Esme Morgan and Katie Robinson will also feature at their first senior international finals.
“The last week has been pretty stressful. We’ve had to make hard decisions in the last period. It’s nice for the ones who are in, it’s not nice for the ones who aren’t,” said Wiegman.
“We’ve had very good conversations with the tactical staff, we follow the players very closely. But it’s been really hard.
“Everyone you call to give them good news is a nice moment. When there is a positive message. For some, it was expected while for others it was a little less but I won’t talk about individual phone calls.
“We’re a little bit in transition now with some changes in the team, but I still think we’re really good and have many very talented players. We’re just going to make sure that we’re at our best and then we’ll see how far we’ll go. We’re still in a very good place.”
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