FAST DOWNLOAD
- Euro 2022 winner damaged knee ligaments
- Spent nine months stuck on the sidelines
- Found ‘graft’ during return to fitness difficult
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Getty ImagesWHAT HAPPENED?
In April 2023, the Lionesses’ European Championship-winning captain damaged knee ligaments during an appearance for the Gunners. It was quickly confirmed that she would play no part in the Women’s World Cup later that year
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Williamson would spend nine months on the sidelines, with a long road to recovery taking her through to January 2024. The 27-year-old defender has revealed that she once doubted her ability to complete such a programme, with gruelling physio sessions not something that she ever wanted to sign up for.
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Getty ImagesWHAT WILLIAMSON SAID
Williamson has told Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast when asked to cast her mind back to the moment that she crumpled to the turf during a meeting with Manchester United: “The first thing I thought of… I didn’t feel pain. Like obviously I felt the sensation, let’s say, but I didn’t feel pain. I just knew instantly that was my World Cup over.
“I’ll be honest, I always sort of said if that ever happened to me, I’m not sure I’d be able to do it. Like, I’m not sure that I’d want to do that rehab because it just goes against everything we talk about, loving the game – they’re all the parts of the game that I don’t love and I don’t want to do, because it’s the graft. You know some people thrive off it. And I have the most respect for those people, but I’m just not one of those people. I do it because I have to. Literally straight away I just thought, this is going to be months of hell.”
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