England at the FIFA Women’s World Cup: Lauren James gives Lionesses cause to believe they can win it all

To outside observers it might seem curious that the reigning European champions would have travelled to Australia and New Zealand with anything other than a crushing weight of expectation placed on their shoulders by the public back home. And yet, even though England arrived at the Women’s World Cup as one of the bookmakers’ favorites there was a sense in the air that it would be quite the struggle to live up to the expectations they had set for themselves in winning last summer’s Euros on home soil.

A tricky group would have been hard enough to navigate at full strength. England were at anything but. Captain Leah Williamson was ruled out with a knee injury. The player who took the armband off her, Millie Bright, only just made it back to fitness in time. Further forward, star playmaker Fran Kirby underwent knee surgery that ruled her out, as did Euro 2022 top scorer Beth Mead, who finished second in voting for last year’s Ballon d’Or. Even for a nation as stacked with talent as England, these were almighty setbacks.