Wiegman hints Williamson fit for England semi and says Carter ‘ready to perform'

Independent

5 hours ago

Sarina Wiegman has suggested captain Leah Williamson will be fit for England's Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy and said Jess Carter is 'ready to perform' after the defender revealed she had been the target of racist abuse.
There were concerns about centre-back Williamson's fitness after she rolled her ankle in extra time of Thursday's dramatic last-eight shoot-out victory over Sweden, but the Arsenal defender – alongside every other member of the squad – trained with the team on Monday morning.
Carter, in a statement shared to her accounts on several platforms on Sunday, said she would be 'taking a step back' from social media, while Football Association CEO Mark Bullingham confirmed his organisation has involved UK police.
Asked if she expected to have a full complement available for the semi in Geneva, England boss Wiegman said: 'That's what it looks like, yeah.'
And pressed further on what Williamson's readiness push said about her skipper, the Dutch boss replied: 'It says she really wants to play, and she did everything to recover as good as possible, and she has, so she could be training today.
'When she recovers well, she's available tomorrow.'
England midfielder Georgia Stanway added: 'She's our captain. We would like her on the pitch as much as possible. She leads in communication and in performance, so to have her on the pitch is obviously what England need.'
Williamson and Carter have both started every game of England's European title defence in Switzerland.
On the abuse received by Carter, Wiegman said it was 'really sad that we have to be occupied by this. It's ridiculous. It's disgusting what's happening, and that goes beyond football, so we had to pay attention to that and support Jess.'
Wiegman said she has had 'conversations' with Carter about her involvement in Tuesday's contest, adding: 'Although it's a hard situation, Jess is a very strong person, and she wants to move on, too, but she also felt, and so did we, that we had to address this.
'You can't just let it go. So she did, we did, and then we know that there's a match going on and we want to perform. We're ready to perform. She's ready to perform and compete, and that says a lot about her and about the team.'
The Lionesses have collectively decided to stop 'taking the knee' ahead of kick-off, a symbolic anti-racism gesture that has become increasingly widespread, explaining in a statement on Monday: 'It is clear we and football need to find another way to tackle racism.'
Stanway said: 'I think it's just to change it up. We felt like the knee was just a little repetitive. We felt like it comes to a point where the knee isn't doing what we want it to do. So now our decision is to stand, and hopefully that will bring up more conversation and get (people) talking about the topic.'
England, fifth in the world, are eight places higher in FIFA's global rankings than Tuesday's opponents, and are unbeaten in all five of their recent meetings with Italy – all friendlies – with four wins, including last year's 5-1 victory.
But though statistics may be on the defending champions' side, Wiegman said: 'I think it would be really disrespectful to Italy to think that we're the favourites.
'Complacency is just the biggest mistake you could make. We've seen how they've played. I don't think there's anything that we could think that we might be the favourite, but we have to be at our very, very best to win the game.'