England captain Leah Williamson set to overlook Girls’s World Cup after choosing up knee damage

England captain Leah Williamson will miss the Girls’s World Cup later this yr after she suffered an anterior cruciate ligament damage whereas enjoying for Arsenal, her membership introduced on Friday. Williamson limped off early within the Gunners’ 1-0 defeat to Manchester United within the Girls’s Tremendous League (WSL) on Wednesday.

“We will verify that Leah Williamson suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament,” Arsenal stated in an announcement. “Leah will now start a interval of rehabilitation and is ready for an prolonged spell on the sidelines. She’s going to endure surgical procedure sooner or later.”

Williamson can even be absent for Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final tie in opposition to Wolfsburg.

“Till I’ve the phrases to precise my emotions correctly I’ll wrestle to verbalise them. The noise across the state of affairs is loud and I would like some quiet to let all of it sink in,” Williamson posted on Instagram. 

“Sadly the World Cup and Champions League dream is over for me and everybody will assume that is the primary focus, but it surely’s the day after day of what I am about to undergo that’s the most draining of my ideas.”

Williamson led the Lionesses to their first main event victory at Euro 2022 on house soil final yr.

“We’re with you each step of the best way,” the Lionesses’ Twitter feed posted in response to the information.

The lack of the defender is a serious blow to England’s possibilities of backing up that success by lifting the Girls’s World Cup for the primary time in Australia and New Zealand.
Sarina Wiegman can even be with out Arsenal ahead Beth Mead, who gained the Golden Boot at Euro 2022, for the World Cup after she too suffered a torn ACL again in November.

England kick off their marketing campaign in opposition to Haiti on July 22 earlier than dealing with Denmark and China in Group D.

Williamson collapsed in ache within the twelfth minute of the 1-0 loss at Leigh Sports activities Village after showing to catch her studs within the turf earlier than limping off.

She is the third key Arsenal participant together with Mead and Vivianne Miedema to rupture cruciate ligaments this season, and Gunners boss Jonas Eidevall has criticised the standard of enjoying surfaces within the WSL.

“I believe it is going to proceed right here with the schedule now we have and pitches like that, gamers are going to get injured,” stated the Swede. “That’s one thing that all of us want to enhance on, the amenities the place we play, so we are able to preserve the gamers on the pitch.”