BRISBANE, Australia — England‘s star midfielder Keira Walsh is back in full training, and Sarina Wiegman has confirmed she could make a stunning comeback against Nigeria on Monday.
The FA confirmed Sunday morning all 23 England players were training at their base at the Central Coast Mariners, including Walsh who picked up a knee injury against Denmark.
Later on Sunday, Wiegman confirmed Walsh was in the mix to face Nigeria if she recovered well from that training session.
“She’s doing well,” Wiegman said. “She’s started her rehab straight after the injury. We’ll wait and see how she recovers from the training session and if she does well, then she’s available for tomorrow.”
When asked what the nature of the injury was, Wiegman said: “It wasn’t a ligament injury, that’s all I can say really.”
The news of Walsh’s return will come as a huge boost for England. Back when she injured her knee against Denmark, there were fears she had suffered a tournament-ending injury. She was stretchered off in the 35th minute of the match after her right knee buckled underneath her as she stretched for a pass.
The FA confirmed a day after the Denmark match that she had avoided ACL damage but wouldn’t put a timeframe on her recovery. However, the fact she stayed with the camp rather than being flown home sparked hopes she would play again at the World Cup.
The announcement she had returned to full training on Sunday came just 48 hours after the FA confirmed she was undergoing an individual training programme, but did not feature on the grass on Friday.
“It was that moment in the game, it was a hard moment, not nice to see,” Wiegman said. “After the assessment we knew what was going on but didn’t want to make any assumptions, just wait for the proper assessment. Then we got the green light to get the rehab started.”
Without Walsh, England deployed a 3-5-2 formation against China to great effect, winning the match 6-1. After that match, Lucy Bronze was asked whether England would continue with that formation or revert back to their usual 4-2-3-1 if Walsh returned.
“We have shuffled things about a little bit and it keeps other teams on their toes. They don’t know what to expect, it makes us unpredictable,” Bronze said.
“If Keira does come back and play, who is to say how we will play. We might keep this formation with her in it.
“We need to be unpredictable, we needed to refresh things, you need that in the knockout rounds.”
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