The Lionesses latest news ahead of their upcoming fixtures.

By Freya Ward (19/02/24)

With the Lionesses meeting up for their first camp of 2024 where they will be heading over to Spain for a warm weather training camp. It is important that you are filled in with all the latest news ahead of their two friendly fixtures against Italy and Austria. 

Last Tuesday England Head coach Sarina Wiegman named her 23-player squad for their upcoming fixtures. The first squad of 2024 saw just two changes from the last time the team met up, seeing Captain, Leah Williamson was named 10 months after her gruelling ACL injury that saw her missing England’s World cup run last summer, in place of Millie Bright, who is still sidelined due to a recurring knee injury. In a sad turn of events, Williamson was forced to withdraw from a seperate issue related to her hamstring.

This month’s squad also saw the return of Manchester City youngster Jess Park, a semi-familiar face to lioness fans, who is on her way to cementing her place in this England squad; Park replaced Katie Zelem a midfielder who has seen herself in and out of the squad over the past couple of years.

I asked Wiegman about this choice to which she replied, “she (Zelem) has shown what she has done for the team, I’m just picking all our midfielders now I want to see them this camp and from there we will take it,” highlighting the chance for experimentation within this international window. 

Aside from Williamson’s withdrawal, another major headline was the absence of Manchester united top goal scorer this season Nikita Parris. Parris was a part of the 2022 European championship winning squad but has since seen herself dropped from the squad on several occasions.

Wiegman said “In autumn, she didn’t play that much and, because of the competition, too, I made other decisions. Now, since the New Year, she’s played in the No.9 position, and she’s done really well. Of course, we’ve noticed that too, so I had a little chat with her, and I hope she shows consistency, because we’re talking about her again, but I made some other choices now for this camp with the players we have. They have done really well, too. It was a hard decision.” 

Parris’ form has been nothing short of exceptional this season scoring 13 goals and picking up two assists in 17 matches for her club side, whilst Alessia Russo the most obvious competition for the number 9 spot has only scored 8 goals and just one more assist than Parris in 19 matches- in all competitions for Arsenal- which has left a lot of people questioning Wiegman’s choice not to call Parris up due to lack of consistency whilst she has shown much more than Russo. 

Leah Williamson’s withdrawal from the squad due to the injury that kept her out of Arsenals game against Manchester United at the weekend and has resulted in the call up of Millie Turner.

She is a newer face to the squad having received her first call up under Wiegman for December’s fixtures against The Netherlands and Scotland but is yet to receive minutes, so this ‘experimental’ camp is the perfect opportunity for Turner to receive her first minutes for her country. 

Wiegman emphasised that this camp will be one full of experimentation due to both matches being friendlies, suggesting that we will see some squad rotation, something that fans have not seen too much of, recently given the stakes of England’s recent games.  

Something key to note is the inclusion of the Under 23’s this month, the squad will be travelling with the senior players and will be training within close quarters where Wiegman can keep a close eye on the pool of young talent that she can choose from. Some notable names within this squad include Chelsea superstar Aggie Beever-Jones, Aston Villa’s Ebony Salmon and one of Wiegman’s world cup squad members Katie Robinson. This is something that Wiegman is really looking forward to saying “We think it is really good that we can watch them live, not just on footage it’s a great opportunity to be this close to them” so I think it is safe to say that England fans will be seeing more youngsters filtering their way into the senior squad very soon.

From a fans perspective I am really looking forward to this international window and I am excited to watch players who don’t play regular international minutes have a chance to prove themselves and cement their place in this Lionesses squad ahead of the European Championships next summer, where England will be looking to defend their title.