Lauren Hemp raring to go for Euros ahead of ‘hardest tournament’ as a Lioness so far | OneFootball

Lauren Hemp has recovered from injury just in time for Euro 2025 this year and the Manchester City forward is raring to go ahead of what she described to be her ‘hardest tournament yet’.

After being left with no choice but to go through with knee surgery in November, there was serious doubts about whether or not Lauren Hemp would return to the pitch before Euro 2025.

Despite her recovery taking longer than expected, Hemp was able to fully recover before the end of the WSL season and with the Euros fast approaching, the Manchester City winger is ready to go.

“It got to a point where I was like ‘right I really want to get back on the pitch now, what’s happening?’” Hemp said on her injury.

“To then be fit just before and get a camp under my belt and get some experience back, obviously doing that at Wembley, there is no better place to do it.

“So yeah I mean there was obviously points where I was like ‘am I going to be fit for the summer’? But no better time to be back fit and raring to go.”

The 24-year-old made her return to action for England in May, with Hemp impressing at Wembley as the Lionesses thumped Portugal 6-0 in a friendly.

Hemp only managed two goals in the WSL last season during an injury-riddled campaign and she will be keen to return to competitive football following a long break to recover.

Lauren Hemp excited for competitive Euro 2025

This summer’s Euros might be more competitive than ever before though, with England drawn in one of the hardest groups at Euro 2025.

The Lionesses face France, Wales and the Netherlands in the group stage and should they advance from Group D, they would likely have to face either Spain or Germany at some point during the competition.

“Obviously naturally there’s an added pressure because we have been successful in the past. I think naturally as the game is growing, every team is getting better as well.” Hemp said.

“We know going into this tournament that it’s going to be tough. It’s probably the hardest tournament that there has been so far.

“We’ve got so much respect for every team going into it and we know it’s going to be hard, but we also know we’ve got every player that’s capable of winning it again and we’re going to do our best to make sure that we’re going to be the best versions of ourselves come the tournament.”

Hemp wasn’t the only player to address the pressure on England this summer, as new number 1 Hannah Hampton also spoke about how good the standard is this year.

Despite the Lionesses playing down the pressure this year, at 4/1 odds to win Euro 2025 with the best UK betting sites, England are fancied to go far once again.