PITCH IMPERFECT
Given the astonishing amount of knee-knack which blights women’s football, you could be forgiven for presuming the World Cup organisers would go out of their way to provide participating nations with adequate pitches upon which to train. Leah Williamson, Fran Kirby, Mallory Swanson and Janine Beckie are among the household names missing out on the tournament after jiggering their knees, while the England captain’s teammates at Arsenal, Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema, will also be tuning in from home. Forced to travel without their star player, it is perhaps understandable that the Netherlands have spat the dummy over having to train at the Bay Oval in Tauranga, which cricket fans will remember as the scene of Jimmy Anderson’s four-wicket haul for 18 runs when England battered New Zealand back in February.
