The England trio of Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood and Georgia Stanway have all returned to Sarina Wiegman’s squad after lengthy knee injuries, for their upcoming Nations League meetings with Portugal and Spain, in a major boost to the Lionesses’ hopes for this summer’s European Championship.
The Bayern Munich midfielder Stanway is yet to play in this calendar year and Wiegman said England will get her to full match fitness up carefully, stating: “We still need to build. Georgia is in training. What we hope is that she comes into camp and continues building with us and, hopefully, towards the Euros.
“It’s important that she’s healthy, that she can handle training loads and recover from it, and then perform at that level. We have the time to see that [before the Euros]. Hopefully we can build and see where she’s at. She needs to be performing at the highest level, at her highest level, to compete for a position, as with anyone else.”
Hemp, Greenwood and Stanway suffered their injuries in November, December and January respectively and the former two returned to action for Manchester City in April but Stanway is yet to play competitively since her treatment began.
Wiegman has also given a senior call-up to the Tottenham full-back Ella Morris, bolstering her chances of a late surge into the tournament squad for July’s finals, and there is a place in the 27-player list for the Brighton & Hove Albion striker Michelle Agyemang, on loan from Arsenal, who is rewarded for scoring a superb goal just moments into her senior international debut in England’s last match in April.
Agyemang, 19, was originally a late injury replacement into April’s squad midway through that camp but has evidently done enough to impress Wiegman to be retained in the senior setup.
The uncapped Aston Villa midfielder Missy Bo Kearns, a former captain of England’s Under-23 side, has also been recalled by Wiegman. The England head coach has named her squad a week earlier than usual, ahead of 30 May’s home fixture at Wembley against Portugal and 3 June’s away trip to face the world champions Spain. It is the final time England will meet before Wiegman names her Euros squad later in June.
However, there is no place in the squad for the injured Chelsea forward Lauren James, who suffered a hamstring injury in April’s home victory over Belgium. On the 23-year-old’s fitness, Wiegman said: “She can’t join us in the next camp but we’re trying to build [her fitness], together with club. She really, of course, as many other players, wants to go to the Euros, and hopefully we can get her fit and ready to go into it. These three things are important: she needs to be healthy, she needs to be able to train and recover from training and then you can build a bit.
“She’s working really hard to get fit. There’s also the fact that she performed really well and she developed so quickly and so well and really showed up for Chelsea and for us, I think. So I just want to give it a chance. She’s a special player who has moments in the game where she can be decisive.”
England’s Euros campaign begins against Group D rivals France in Zurich on 5 July and they will ultimately hope to defend their title in 27 July’s final in Basel.
Wiegman also appeared calm about the prospect of several of her key players featuring in the inaugural World Sevens Football tournament in Portugal from 21-23 May. The new event, which will include Manchester City and Manchester United, as well as Mary Earps’ Paris Saint-Germain side and Stanway’s Bayern Munich amongst the eight clubs taking part overall, involves 15-minute halves, played on a smaller pitch.
Wiegman said: “It’s a seven-a-side, so it’s a different load, so of course they’re not going to overload themselves. They’re going to do smart things if they’re in, knowing what’s ahead of them and that’s of course the Nations League, but also the major tournament with the Euros. They really want to be in competition for that. So I don’t see it as a big problem, this seven-a-side in the future.
“I don’t know how they’re going to get that into the schedule [long-term], but for some players there’s two weeks of no competition, they’re in training, and this is [therefore] a way to stay fresh and not drop their levels.”
The England trio of Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood and Georgia Stanway have all returned to Sarina Wiegman’s squad after lengthy knee injuries Read More
