Women’s World Cup: England boost as Keira Walsh set to return against Nigeria

England has received a boost with Keira Walsh set to return from a knee injury sustained in the Lionesses’ Group D win over Denmark.

The 26-year-old mounted ‘it’s my knee’ to England medical staff as she was stretchered off before half-time, which prompted strong rumours of an ACL issue – an injury that would have put an end to Walsh’s FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 campaign.

However just eight days after the incident, the Barcelona midfielder is already training again as England prepare for their Round of 16 fixture against Nigeria.

Although, coach Wiegman does not reveal if Walsh will start against the Super Falcons, but she has travelled and could well be named as a substitute with the ability to get some minutes.

“She is doing well. She started her rehab straight after we knew what was going on,” Wiegman told media.

“She has been on the pitch, she has been training today. Now we will wait until [we see] how she recovers from that training session and if she does well then she is available tomorrow (Monday).

“I can only say that there wasn’t a ligament injury. Of course that moment in that game against Denmark, that was a very hard moment, but after the assessments and we knew what was going on we also said don’t take any assumptions.

“Just wait until a proper assessment has been done. That’s what we did and then we got the green light to just get her rehab started.

“Everybody is going on about injuries all the time, but the day after we noticed things were much better.”