The Swamp is getting a makeover

Already one of the true legends of the women’s game, Lucy Bronze has been a regular for England since making her debut in 2013 and has played all across the park, although she is best known as a marauding right-back, overlapping Beth Mead in the Euros to often devastating effect. Born into a bilingual Portuguese-English family in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bronze, now 31, played for Alnwick Town until she turned 12, when FA regulations prevented her from continuing to play for the boys’ team, a matter about which her coach felt so strongly he launched an unsuccessful discrimination case to challenge the rules, reluctant to lose his best player to an outmoded technicality. A multi-talented athlete in secondary school, she played at youth level for Blyth Town and Sunderland, graduating to the latter’s senior squad and winning the FA Women’s Premier League Northern Division in 2008/09 before relocating to the US to enrol at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play for the Tar Heels, a path future LionessesAlessia Russo and Lotte Wubben-Moy would later follow. Get all the latest Women’s World Cup odds here Returning to England to complete her sports science degree at Leeds Metropolitan University, playing for the institution’s women’s team while supporting herself by working at Domino’s Pizza, Bronze then commenced her senior career in earnest with Everton in 2010. After two years, she transferred to city rivals Liverpool where she won back-to-back Women’s Super Leagues, before moving to Manchester City in 2014, where she again won the title and the FA Cup in 2016. She then moved on to France to play for all-conquering Lyon in 2017, winning the Champions League, three successive league titles, two domestic cups and finishing second in the running for the 2019 Ballon d’Or before returning to City for further cup success. A final switch to Barcelona alongside long-time teammate Keira Walsh followed last summer and the Catalans duly won the title and Champions League in Bronze’s debut season. A hugely popular and respected member of the England set up with 105 caps to her name and counting, and an Instagram account for her West Highland Terrier Narla, it could all have been so different for Lucy Bronze. As the daughter of a maths teacher, she had reportedly planned to become an accountant had football not worked out. Read More How to watch England vs Haiti: TV channel and start time for Women’s World Cup opener Women’s football world rankings: Who could take No 1 at the World Cup? FIFA Women’s World Cup fixtures and full schedule

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Kevin de Bruyne has admitted that his hamstring was so flimsy it was like a wet kitchen towel before he was injured. The Manchester City midfielder played with a hamstring problem for the final two months of last season before being injured in the first half of the Champions League final win over Internazionale. And after making a comeback, he was hurt again in the Premier League opener against Burnley, lasting just 23 minutes before undergoing surgery. The Belgium captain could be back in December and is confident this time he will last longer on his comeback. He said: “It was a serious operation. It’s actually going very well. There will be a major scan next week and then we will know how the injury is progressing. In the end, everything is going according to schedule. I have not been given a time when I could play football again. “It is important that I get this injury 100 per cent right. There were a lot of cracks. Those hamstrings could have torn at any time. It was - on paper - a wet kitchen towel. Ultimately, I had a major maintenance carried out after 700 matches, a bit like you do with your car. “I had been struggling for two months, but I was able to hold on well and with the club we were able to manage everything. I was able to arrange to be there at the right time. During the week when I felt at my best, but my body said that it was enough. I still had a lot of stress in that final. Because of all those movements I may have made the crack a little bigger. But it was worth it. “This has never happened to me before. It is a serious surgery and something like that doesn’t happen very often with a hamstring injury. But all the surgeons said an intervention was necessary.” Read More Pep Guardiola responds to concerns over artificial pitch ahead of Young Boys clash Watch: Jurgen Klopp’s amusing reaction to Man United being thrashed at home ‘I am a fighter’ insists Erik ten Hag after chastening Manchester United defeat