Jordan Nobbs knows far too much about the frustration of being all dressed up with nowhere to go. She was tipped to switch the lights on for England at the 2015 World Cup in Canada but played only one group match before sustaining a complicated hamstring injury. Her bronze medal still provokes bitter-sweet emotions. Then, four years later, she sat out the next World Cup, in France, nursing a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, before knee ligament damage ruled her out of Euro 2022.
“It means that, now, I’m still waking up with the butterfly feeling,” says the 30-year-old Aston Villa midfielder. “Everyone dreams of playing in major tournaments. Everyone knows the journey I’ve been on, so to be part of this World Cup in such a talented squad is an unbelievable feeling.”
