Lionesses star thought 'when am I getting back' during long injury journey
Sarina Wiegman's England side will begin their Euros defence in July and there were times when Lauren Hemp wondered when she'd be able to return after a long lay-off
Lionesses star Lauren Hemp has admitted there were times during her long injury lay-off when she wasn't sure when she'd next get to pull on an England shirt. Manchester City winger Hemp underwent surgery on a knee injury in November, keeping her out of her country's first four UEFA Nations League games, but she returned with an assist on Friday in a thumping 6-0 victory over Portugal.
Club and international team-mate Alex Greenwood also made a Lionesses comeback on Friday after several months out, and the pair are back at the perfect time with Sarina Wiegman 's team defending their Euros title in Switzerland in July.
'Obviously we've come back on the pitch together for City and we're back now today, back in an England shirt, and it's nice to share these moments with Alex because we've been there with each other through the whole thing,' Hemp said.
'It's been a long journey, and earlier there's been times where I've thought 'when am I actually getting back on the pitch?' after a few setbacks. But no, it's a great feeling to get back in an England shirt and get back to doing what I love doing, and hopefully there's still more to come.'
England raced into a 5-0 lead, with Aggie Beever-Jones becoming just the third player to score a hat-trick for the national team at Wembley, and the young Chelsea striker came in for praise from her team-mate. 'Oh yeah, unbelievable,' Hemp added.
'She scores goals like that all the time in training, and every single time she shot it turned to a goal. We're so proud of Aggie, you can see from our celebrations how happy we are for each other when we score, and it's a great person for that to happen to and we're all very proud of her.'
England face Spain on Tuesday, knowing a win will see them top their Nations League group, and the squad for the Euros will be announced just two days after that. And, with a Euros group containing France, the Netherlands and Wales, the holders will be up against it from the start.
'Obviously we're going to the Euros to to a job and we're feeling confident, we're feeling ready, and obviously we're taking each game as it comes but we're working hard to be the best we can for the summer,' Hemp said. The fans were incredible again tonight so we're hoping to bring a lot of them to Switzerland,
'The confidence is high. Obviously we've got a lot of respect for Spain and we've had so many great games against them, so we're going to make sure we're ready and rested for that game and we're going to make sure we start that game as we did this one.'
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