Beth England opens up on "big risk" that saw her earn Lionesses World Cup recall
Beth England has admitted her recent international exile was "difficult" but believes the risk of leaving former club Chelsea has paid off.
England earned a last minute recall to the Lionesses squad for the World Cup following a superb run of form for Tottenham, after a big money move from Chelsea in January. The forward hit 12 goals in 12 WSL appearances after Spurs paid £250,000, the transfer helping keep them in the top flight and secure England a place on the plane to Australia, after she was originally dropped by manager Sarina Wiegman last October.
And England, who will compete with fellow forwards Rachel Daly and Alessia Russo for the number nine shirt during the tournament, revealed it was hard watching the team add more silverware following last summer's Euros triumph, without her. The Lionesses retained the Arnold Clark Cup in February before winning the inaugural Finalissima against Brazil at Wembley.
The forward said that although it was a risk to move to Spurs, she knew she had to take the gamble to give herself every chance of making the England squad.
"Anything is a risk in football," England said. "The situation I was in (at Chelsea) I wasn’t getting used, I was stuck on the bench and as Sarina said, rightly, that I wasn’t getting picked because I wasn’t getting minutes.
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"It was up to me to make sure I was, not only getting the minutes but making the minutes count. I think I did that at Spurs and I can’t thank them enough for giving me the opportunity.
"It’s difficult to go from being part of the highs of winning the Euros, to then not being involved for nearly 10 months now. It has been a difficult change and it’s hard because I was seeing the team winning the Finalissima, the Arnold Clark Cup, they're all moments I want to be a part of but equally that’s the decision that was made, that’s life.
Beth England has been in sensational form since her move to Spurs"Not everything goes your way. It wasn’t until a couple of months in that it actually hit me what was going on but ultimately I did not want to be sat in a position where I didn’t try and give my everything to go. I could of stayed at Chelsea, in my comfort zone, but I knew I would regret it.
"You can only control what you can control and all I could do was go to Spurs, make sure that I worked hard. I did everything I could to put myself on that flight."
England, who was presented with her legacy cap by Prince William at St Georges Park on Tuesday, had earlier partnered fellow forward Russo in a intra-team practice game. If selected against Portugal in a friendly next week, it will be her first appearance for the Lionesses since the 10-0 hammering of Luxembourg back in September.
Along with Aston Villa's Daly, all three have been in superb form in the WSL this year, scoring 46 goals between them in the top flight. And the Spurs striker said she couldn't wait to fight for her place in the side.
Prince William presents England with her Lionesses legacy cap"We've got an exceptional group," England added. "The mentality is the same as the Euros - we want to win. There’s an exceptional amount of competition in the striking force as well as the whole squad.
"But I'm looking forward to it. Ultimately the goal will remain the same, whoever plays we want to put on a performance for everyone to be proud of.
"I think they'll be a lot of pressure and expectation on us, but the girls know that pressure is a privilege. Anything can happen in tournament football, we'll go out there and give it our all."
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