BRISBANE – Keira Walsh will undergo a late fitness test after returning to training as Sarina Wiegman declined to rule the midfielder out of England’s World Cup tie against Nigeria.
The chances of a miraculous return for the round of 16 still look slim following the knee injury she suffered in the Lionesses’ 1-0 win over Denmark on 28 July.
Yet fears that the 26-year-old had torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) were quickly allayed when scans revealed the injury was not as serious as first feared.
“She’s doing well,” Wiegman said. “She started her rehab straight after we knew what was going on. She has been on the pitch training today, so now we will wait to see how she recovers and if she does well then she will be available for tomorrow.”
The England head coach did not confirm the specific nature of her injury but added it was “not a ligament injury” of any kind.
The camp has remained cautiously optimistic that Walsh could still play some part in the knockout stages as she steps up her rehabilitation at the team’s base in Terrigal, New South Wales.
It was not known whether she would be ready to travel to Brisbane but now that she has trained on grass again she has made the trip up to Queensland.
That in itself represents a remarkable comeback but Wiegman said England were always careful not to take “assumptions” and “wait until a proper assessment has been done”.
“The first moment was of course, as we all could see, that moment of her knee sliding, that was not a good moment and everyone was in shock but also because everything is going on about injuries all the time,” she said.
“But then really quick, the day after we noticed that things weren’t as bad as it looked.”
England will be on the alert for another shock result in what has been a tournament of upsets, with Nigeria at the forefront of that trend having beaten co-hosts Australia and drawn with Olympic champions Canada.
Asked if the European champions are now the team to beat following their 6-1 thrashing of China, Wiegman added: “I think everyone who plays against us wants to beat us. That’s nothing new. I think what we have seen in this tournament, the game is developing really quickly.
That’s what you see in the games. The games are very competitive. No one can be complacent. That’s inappropriate to be complacent because it’s very tight.”
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