England Women reporter notebook: With or without Keira Walsh, Lionesses have a plan to avoid last-16 upset vs Nigeria | Football News

It will be one of the outstanding comebacks.

Ten days on from being stretchered off in tears with a suspected tournament-ending ACL damage, Keira Walsh may begin in England’s last-16 recreation in opposition to Nigeria. The midfielder is again in full coaching and, after final week’s reticence in giving any particulars of Walsh’s knee damage or restoration time, Sarina Wiegman was markedly upbeat about her probabilities of that includes.

“She is doing effectively. She began her rehab straight after we knew what was occurring,” mentioned the England supervisor. “She has been on the pitch. She has been coaching right this moment. Now we wait and see how she has recovered from that coaching session. And if she does effectively then she is offered.”

The bodily and psychological torture that Walsh has little question gone by means of over the previous week or so is unimaginable, however as you may anticipate from one of many world’s finest, Walsh has handled it in the one manner she is aware of how – taken the problem head on and has, it appears, come out on prime.

“Properly in fact it was that second within the recreation [vs Denmark] that was a really laborious second,” added Wiegman. “Not good, not good to see, however after the evaluation, we actually knew what was occurring and we additionally mentioned do not take any assumptions.

“Simply wait till a correct evaluation has been accomplished. That is what we did after which we received the inexperienced mild to get her rehab began. As a result of everybody is occurring about accidents on a regular basis, we had been nervous, however then actually fast and the day after we seen that issues weren’t as unhealthy. It regarded unhealthy, however not as individuals thought it was.”

If there may be an upside to having to play with out one in every of your stars, then Wiegman greater than discovered it. How do you exchange the irreplaceable midfield maestro? You do not in case you are Wiegman: you go daring. The England head coach performed three on the again together with her wing-backs pushing on and the consequence was a thumping win over China and a Plan B for England.

So if Walsh is match, do the Lionesses revert to sort? “No, we’ve got two choices now. The best way we performed and what we did in opposition to China. We have now taken that into consideration, and you will notice what we do. I feel Katie Zelem did very well within the recreation in opposition to China. Now Keira’s again and that’s very nice for the group too, however I feel we’ve got different choices. Keira is phenomenal, however different gamers can resolve it and that’s what we’ve got proven.”

How do you exchange the irreplaceable midfield maestro? You do not in case you are Wiegman: you go daring.

There isn’t a query Walsh can simply slot into the system used in opposition to China and England do grow to be a extra harmful opposition with the variability that it brings. After the sport Wiegman talked about how the gamers had seized the possibility to strive one thing totally different and the system “makes use of the qualities of the squad optimally”. That was echoed by Lucy Bronze, who admitted England had grow to be somewhat predictable.

What that formation additionally allowed was for Lauren James to have the time and area to dazzle. This was the second the Chelsea participant actually arrived at this event. “Is the cat out of the bag now about James?” the England head coach was requested. Wiegman for the primary time at this World Cup regarded speechless – a fast clarification introduced a smile and fun after which it was straight again all the way down to enterprise.

“We did not make the beginning line-up but,” she mentioned. “Some international locations do mark and wish to take out gamers not just one, however extra gamers. So that’s good when you’ve gotten so many good gamers on the pitch. They’ve to pay attention to all these gamers. We all know when gamers are man marked that you just discover different methods to construct or hopefully get possibilities and rating targets. We’re conscious of that and we will likely be ready for that too.”

Nigeria are ranked fortieth on this planet, however they are going to present a stern check at each ends of the pitch. They conceded simply twice within the group stage and with three in opposition to Australia they’re a risk in assault too. There isn’t a query of complacency amongst this group of England gamers as they search for a quarter-final place. Wiegman has made positive of that.

“Nigeria have accomplished very well this event,” she added. “They had been in a very laborious group. They’re a really athletic group and fast in transitional play. We’re conscious of their strengths, however we’ve got to attempt to exploit their weaknesses.

“What we’ve got seen on this event, nothing is simple. Completely not [will we be complacent.] There have not been any straightforward video games for us to this point and we don’t anticipate one in opposition to Nigeria. We have now to be at our greatest. Everybody who performs us needs to beat us. That is nothing new.”

In a event which has already seen some seismic shocks and the world order turned the other way up, England have been warned they usually don’t have any intention of being the following high-profile casualty of this World Cup.

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What is the schedule?

The spherical of 16 takes place from August 5 to August 8, with eight video games being performed throughout Australia and New Zealand.

The quarter-finals, which will likely be held in Wellington, Auckland, Brisbane and Sydney, are scheduled for August 11 and 12.

The primary semi-final will then be performed on August 15 in Auckland, with the opposite semi-final going down on August 16 on the Accor Stadium in Sydney, which is able to then host the ultimate on August 20.

A 3rd-place play-off will likely be performed the day earlier than the ultimate on August 19 in Brisbane.