“Straight away I was just in shock,” Millie Bright remembers. It was a Wednesday evening in late April when England’s road to the World Cup hit a major bump, as Leah Williamson collapsed over her right knee and hobbled down the tunnel at Leigh Sports Village. The news then confirmed what was initially feared: with two months to go until the Women’s World Cup, England’s captain was out having suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament injury.
It left the Lionesses needing a new leader. “I don’t think the captaincy crossed my mind at all, hand on heart,” says Bright. After such a severe injury, the defender’s thoughts instead turned to her centre-back partner at last summer’s Euros, but the confirmation soon followed: with Williamson out, Bright will captain England at this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. “There aren’t enough words,” she says. “It’s a massive honour.”
