Hemp, Greenwood and Stanway back in Euros boost for England | OneFootball

The England trio of Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood and Georgia Stanway have returned to Sarina Wiegman’s squad after lengthy knee injuries, for their upcoming Nations League meetings with Portugal and Spain, in a major boost to the Lionesses’ hopes at the European Championship this summer.

The Bayern Munich midfielder Stanway is yet to play in this calendar year and Wiegman said England will get her up to full match fitness carefully, stating: “We still need to build. Georgia is in training. What we hope is that she comes into camp and continues building with us and, hopefully, towards the Euros.

“It’s important that she’s healthy, that she can handle training loads and recover from it, and then perform at that level. We have the time to see that [before the European Championship]. Hopefully we can build and see where she’s at. She needs to be performing at the highest level, at her highest level, to compete for a position, as with anyone else.”

Hemp, Greenwood and Stanway sustained their injuries in November, December and January respectively. Hemp and Greenwood returned to action for Manchester City last month but Stanway is yet to play competitively since her treatment began.

Wiegman has also given a senior call-up to the Tottenham full-back Ella Morris, bolstering her chances of a late surge into the tournament squad for the finals in July, and there is a place in the 27-player list for the Brighton striker Michelle Agyemang, on loan from Arsenal, who is rewarded for a superb goal moments into her senior international debut in England’s last match in April.

Agyemang, 19, was a late injury replacement in the April squad midway through that camp but has done enough to impress Wiegman to be retained in the senior setup.

The uncapped Aston Villa midfielder Missy Bo Kearns, a former captain of England Under-23s, has also been recalled by Wiegman. The England head coach has named her squad a week earlier than usual, before the home fixture at Wembley against Portugal on 30 May and the trip to face the world champions Spain on 3 June. It is the final time England will meet before Wiegman names her Euro 2025 squad in June.

However, there is no place in the squad for the injured Chelsea forward Lauren James, who sustained a hamstring injury in the home win against Belgium in April. On the 23-year-old’s fitness, Wiegman said: “She can’t join us in the next camp but we’re trying to build [her fitness], together with club. She really, of course, as many other players, wants to go to the Euros, and hopefully we can get her fit and ready to go into it.

“These three things are important: she needs to be healthy, she needs to be able to train and recover from training and then you can build a bit. She’s working really hard to get fit.

“There’s also the fact that she performed really well and she developed so quickly and so well and really showed up for Chelsea and for us, I think. So I just want to give it a chance. She’s a special player who has moments in the game where she can be decisive.”

England’s European Championship campaign begins against France in a Group D game in Zurich on 5 July and they will hope to defend their title in the final in Basel on 27 July.

Wiegman also appeared calm about the prospect of several of her key players featuring in the inaugural World Sevens Football tournament in Portugal on 21-23 May. The new event, which will include Manchester City and Manchester United, as well as Mary Earps’s Paris Saint-Germain side and Stanway’s Bayern Munich among the eight clubs taking part overall, involves 15-minute halves, played on a smaller pitch.

Wiegman said: “It’s a seven-a-side, so it’s a different load, so of course they’re not going to overload themselves. They’re going to do smart things if they’re in, knowing what’s ahead of them and that’s of course the Nations League, but also the major tournament with the Euros. They really want to be in competition for that. So I don’t see it as a big problem, this seven-a-side in the future.

“I don’t know how they’re going to get that into the schedule [long‑term], but for some players there’s two weeks of no competition, they’re in training, and this is [therefore] a way to stay fresh and not drop their levels.”

Header image: [Composite: Guardian Picture Desk; PA Images]