Toone comes into England squad as Bronze withdraws

Ella Toone has received a late call into the England squad for the Women's World Cup play-off matches against Greece.

Manchester United midfielder Toone and Arsenal winger Chloe Kelly were omitted from the initial squad, with head coach Sarina Wiegman saying they had not "played to their potential in my opinion in the last couple of weeks".

Toone has scored 24 goals in 69 senior England appearances, winning Euro 2022 and Euro 2025 as well as starting in England's 2023 World Cup final defeat by Spain.

She said after being left out of the squad: "It's been a really difficult week. It's not the news that any footballer wants."

Wiegman told BBC Radio 5 Live she was "really impressed" with Toone’s reaction to the setback, as she explained the swift recall.

The midfielder headed to join England in Greece on Thursday, on the eve of the first leg, having been in Spain with her family as part of an individual training camp she had booked.

"Straight away, she was really disappointed not to get called up, but then she straight away wanted to do what was necessary," said Wiegman.

"She trained really hard [in Spain], but also it was to enjoy a different environment and have some headspace there. From what she told me, that was really good.

"I was really impressed and really happy that she did so and I was happy that she expressed herself.

"Of course she was disappointed and there were lots of emotions, but straight away she wanted to fix this. That showed her resilience and grit to come back."

The Lionesses arrived in Crete on Wednesday evening to prepare for Friday's first leg against Greece at the Pankritio Stadium in Heraklion.

Chelsea defender Lucy Bronze has left the squad and will return to her club to manage a minor injury sustained in league action last weekend against West Ham.

The second leg against Greece takes place at Leicester City's King Power Stadium on Tuesday, 13 October.

The winners face either Slovakia or Ukraine on 26 November and 5 December in a two-leg play-off to decide which team progresses to next year's Women's World Cup, which is being held in Brazil from 24 June to 25 July.

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