Sarina Wiegman said Keira Walsh “is back” and may be available for England’s last-16 tie against Nigeria, 10 days after the influential midfielder was forced off with what had looked like a serious knee injury during the team’s 1-0 defeat of Denmark.
Walsh went down in the 35th minute of the group game and had a scan the following day, which confirmed she had not sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury but the extent of the damage was not confirmed. The midfielder was absent for England’s final group game against China, which England won 6-1, but has taken part in training with the team before their first knockout game.
“In that moment in the game it was a very hard moment and not nice to see,” Wiegman said.
“After the assessment, when we knew what was going on, we said don’t make any assumptions and wait until a proper assessment has been done. That’s what we did – then we got the green light to get the rehab started.
“She’s doing well. She started her rehab straight after we knew what was going on. She has been on the pitch, training today and now we will wait to see how she recovers and if she does well then, she will be available for tomorrow.”
The defender Alex Greenwood said: “Keira’s been fine. We obviously spent a few days apart when we played but she’s Keira and was focused on her rehab. She always had a smile on her face, and we just supported her as teammates as best we could.”
Wiegman would not be drawn on exactly what was wrong. “I can only say it was not a ligament injury,” the England manager said.
Is Walsh’s potential return a boost? “Of course, we want every player to be fit and available,” Wiegman said. “Keira wasn’t available for the last match, and we know what options we have in that position. Katie [Zelem] did really well against China and now Keira is back so that’s really nice for the team, too. We know we have other options too. Keira is exceptional but other players can solve that, that’s what we’ve shown.”
The Nigeria manager, Randy Waldrum, said Walsh was “obviously a key player in the midfield for them” and added: “Kind of like we had to do for Australia and Sam Kerr, we had to prepare with and without, we have to do the same.
“England have so many weapons. All of those players are playing all over the world in high-profile settings. There’s more that can do damage to us than just her. They’ve given us a lot of challenges to prepare for and it will just be another one if she comes in.”
England switched to a back three and put Zelem and Georgia Stanway in the middle in front of them to cope with the absence of Walsh. The new 3-5-2 delivered their most impressive performance.
“We have two options now – the way we have played and what we did against China, so we will take that into consideration,” Wiegman said. “You will see tomorrow what we will do.”
Wiegman said there was “absolutely not” room for complacency against Nigeria. “What we have seen in this tournament is that nothing is easy. The growth of the game has shown in this tournament. We’ve not had an easy game at all and that’s what we expect tomorrow – that it will be very competitive, and we need to be at our best.
“Everyone who plays us wants to beat us. That’s nothing new. What we have seen in this tournament is that the game is developing really quickly. The games have been very competitive. Nobody can be complacent because that’s inappropriate. It’s very tight.”
