ENGLAND have been dealt an injury blow with Mary Earps withdrawing from their squad before their return Euros qualifier with France.
The Lionesses goalkeeper, 31, hobbled off during her team’s 2-1 Friday night loss to Les Bleues.
On Sunday, the FA confirmed the England No1 sustained a minor hip injury during the clash at St James’ Park.
Her team will be without their first choice goalkeeper when they face France away in Saint-Etienne on Tuesday with both sides battling for an automatic spot at next year’s tournament.
The FA say Birmingham City shot stopper Lucy Thomas, who had been on the squad’s standby list, has now joined Sarina Wiegman’s group.
Earps, who was making her 50th senior England appearance in the game in Newcastle, appeared to strain her hip whilst making pass to Millie Bright.
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Despite attempting to soldier on, the Lioness No1 had to come off in the eighth minute and was replaced by Chelsea keeper Hannah Hampton.
The Manchester United ace, who played in all six games during England’s 2022 Euros triumph, was spotted on crutches after the final whistle of their narrow loss Friday.
The defeat saw her side drop to third spot in their qualifiers group with France currently top and Sweden in second place.
Only the top two sides from their group guaranteed automatic qualification for next year’s Euros in Switzerland.
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Wiegman’s side will hope to beat France when they go to battle with Herve Renard’s side at Geoffroy-Guichard Stadium on Tuesday.
And Earps’ Lionesses team-mate Ella Toone has backed the side to bounce back when they face Les Bleues.
Toone, has 49 England caps, said: “We’ve got an experienced bunch of players in that changing room, players who have played in massive games.
“I’m sure that we can go out there with the same mindset that we always have, and that’s to win the game.
“We’ve got to make sure that we recover really well to go into that game one hundred per cent.
“Right now it hurts a little bit but we’ve got a few more days until we go again, which is nice, because we can always rectify what we didn’t do.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
