Sarina Wiegman announced a 25 player squad for the final international camp of the year today with a few faces returning to the camp for the first time since the euros. In other news Freya Godfrey earns her maiden lionesses squad, making the step up from the under-23’s for the first time.
Firstly, she spoke on Mary Earps’ autobiography saying: “She’s retired now, and we had incredible times and I always cherished that, and I’ve really enjoyed that… I make decisions to win … we have two incredible people in the goalkeeper group… overtime the competition has been really really hard, we had a very good goal keeper unit and the two goal keepers were competing for the number one spot.”
Following this, she was asked about Ellie Roebuck and how close to returning to the squad the keeper is, to this she said “‘We have a group of goal keepers we keep a close eye on… she is a little bit further way.”
Freya Godfrey earned her first senior lionesses call up this camp, Wiegman spoke highly of her saying “She’s done well, at the beginning of the season she was injured but I think she came back very well… she’s a young player that can bring something different to the squad.”
One key player kept out of the squad was Lauren James, although the forward only came back from her injury last week, she was a name people expected to see within the squad.
To this, Sarina said “She’s moving forward well… I think she just needs a little more time to get to full fitness… I don’t want to take any risks.”
In other news, Lauren Hemp is back in the squad for the first time since the Lionesses Euro winning campaign, Wigwam spoke on her recent form and how much of a key player the forward is within the squad saying “first of all, it’s really nice for her, I think she really enjoyed herself at the weekend, we could all see that she had a good performance and of course she is an important player for us… and we are very happy to have her back.”
Last time out, Michelle Agyemang suffered an ACL injury whilst playing Spain and since then Katie Reid has suffered the same injury, one that’s becoming far too common in Women’s football. Wiegman was asked whether she thinks it’s an issue within the amount of football young players are playing compared to seasons prior, to this she said, “its a very hard question for me to answer because I’m not in that environment, I think everyone who’s in the women’s game and at that level is trying to make it better for the players… I think the gap to international football is a big one, one we need to close… as always, you want to improve academies to get prepared, to get good level games and to get the programming right, but i think everyone in our environment is working on that to improve it
Leah Williamson is missing out on camp through injury, along with Alex Greenwood and Jess Carter meaning England’s defence is likely to have a new, youthful look this window, something that may be a concern to some but Sarina expressed her confidence saying “It always gives an opportunity to other players to step up, players play at a high level at their club so their experience… so i think there’s a lot of experience players have so they’re used to that… it’s absolutely an opportunity to step up and show where the players are more in the squad now.”
She followed this by saying “Lucy is leading, Keira is leading, Alessia has a lot of experience now so she is leading now also up front, Lauren Hemp, she’s not necessarily an old player but she has a lot of experiences”
Finally, England’s world cup qualifying draw was revealed last week, with the lionesses drawing Iceland, Spain and Ukraine, upon being asked what she thought of the draw, Wiegman said “i think it’s an exciting draw again, of course we are always stuck with Spain, but we haven’t played Ukraine and Iceland so im excited about that, the different opponents.
Squad:
Goalkeepers: Sophie Baggaley, Khiara Keating, Anna Moorhouse
Defenders: Lucy Bronze, Niamh Charles, Anouk Denton, Grace Fisk, Taylor Hinds, Maya Le Tissier, Esme Morgan, Lotte Wubben-Moy
Midfielders: Laura Blinkilde-Brown, Grace Clinton, Missy Bo Kearns, Lucia Kendall, Georgia Stanway, Ella Toone, Keira Walsh
Forwards: Aggie Beever-Jones, Freya Godfrey, Lauren Hemp, Chloe Kelly, Beth Mead, Jess Park, Alessia Russo
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