England do not know whether \u00adLauren James will be available for Sunday\u2019s Euro 2025 final, Sarina \u00adWiegman has said, with the Lionesses waiting nervously on the Chelsea \u00adforward\u2019s fitness.<\/p>\n
James, who was withdrawn at half-time in England\u2019s semi-final win against Italy<\/a> after sustaining an ankle injury, has started all five of the defending champions\u2019 matches in Switzerland but is a doubt for their showdown with Spain.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s still recovering,\u201d Wiegman said on Friday. \u201cShe\u2019s doing things on the [training] pitch and we have two more days so we\u2019re going to give her time. We don\u2019t know yet [if she\u2019ll be ready], but that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to go for \u2013 [aiming for] 23 players available for the game on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n The Arsenal forward Beth Mead, who replaced James on Tuesday, could be in line to start if James is unavailable and the super-sub Chloe Kelly could also be under consideration.<\/p>\n Ella Toone has predicted that another super-sub, Michelle Agyemang<\/a>, will experience a significant change to her life when England return home after the striker\u2019s starring role in the run to the final, but Toone has praised the 19-year-old\u2019s maturity in her debut tournament.<\/p>\n When England won Euro 2022 on home soil Toone came on to score in knockout games against Spain and Germany. This summer, Agyemang has stepped up with late equalisers against Sweden and Italy to save England\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n \u201cShe might get papped eating a pasty like I did! I\u2019ll have to warn her about that,\u201d Toone said with a chuckle. \u201cShe\u2019s definitely in the [team] bubble now, but I think when she gets out she\u2019ll be recognised a lot more than she was before the tournament, that\u2019s for sure, and she definitely deserves that as well.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s mad, I would think she\u2019s about 30 years old, she\u2019s so mature. She\u2019s so humble. She\u2019s coming to this tournament with freedom, not a worry, not a care. She\u2019s just gone out there and done what\u2019s been asked of her.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s been amazing for us. She\u2019s turned up in big moments when we\u2019ve needed her. She\u2019s got a lot of talent and she can do a lot of things that not many players can do. Even when she scored and kept us in games, she\u2019s been the same Michelle that she was when she started this tournament. I\u2019m absolutely buzzing for her. It\u2019s nice for good people to get things that they deserve and she\u2019s definitely one of those people.\u201d<\/p>\n Ella Toone (left) with Michelle Agyemang after the striker\u2019s match-saving goal against Italy. Photograph: Martin Meissner\/AP<\/p>\n England are contesting their third consecutive major final, which Toone described as \u201csomething the country can be proud of\u201d. Toone thanked England\u2019s fans for their support. \u201cThe fans at home, we\u2019ve probably given them a heart attack,\u201d she said, but she hopes the Lionesses\u2019 fighting comebacks and spirit can help them in the final.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Moving the Goalposts<\/p>\n No topic is too small or too big for us to cover as we deliver a twice-weekly roundup of the wonderful world of women\u2019s football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cYou can see the fight from the team,\u201d Toone said. \u201cWe\u2019ll give 100% and we\u2019ll fight like we always do. We\u2019ll have that togetherness to hopefully get over the line.\u201d<\/p>\n Wiegman is in her third straight Euros final and her fifth major final in a row, a sequence that began with winning the 2017 Euros with the Netherlands. Toone praised the Dutchwoman\u2019s team talks, saying: \u201cWe had a good one before the Italy game, the night before in the meeting, one that definitely stood out. Then again before the game. Sarina\u2019s speeches before the games have definitely got us motivated.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though sometimes we have gone a goal down, you still remember the words that she said before the game and it makes you want to go out and put on a performance for the second half as well. She\u2019s been pulling them out of the bag. No matter what Sarina says, you listen, because she\u2019s reached five major tournament finals so she definitely knows what she\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n Toone also knows what to do in big games, having scored in an FA Cup final, a World Cup semi-final, the Women\u2019s Finalissima at Wembley against Brazil and most famously when she opened the scoring in 2022\u2019s Euros final against Germany with her lobbed effort. \u201cHopefully there\u2019s a chance that I can put it in the back of the net like I have done in previous finals,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England do not know whether \u00adLauren James will be available for Sunday\u2019s Euro 2025 final, Sarina \u00adWiegman has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-291013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114914788971047517","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}