The England Women’s squad are currently in the midst of their World Cup journey, so far encountering France, Mexico and Colombia in their group. After an initial loss against the French, the women went on to secure maximum points in their next two games to progress through the group to the last sixteen.
It is inevitable that throughout the long pre tournament build up consisting of numerous friendlies as well as the day to day formalities of training that injuries and niggles are a common part of the build up.
Karen Carney knows this from first hand experience as she thanked the England Women’s medical team after heading home the crucial second goal in the Lionesses’ 2-1 World Cup win over Mexico last Saturday.
The Birmingham City captain had a minor back complaint coming into the tournament and sat out Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat by France as a precautionary measure. With the help and treatment from England and Perform St George’s Park physiotherapist Donna Gormley, Carney has been able to regain fitness in time for a crucial part of the tournament.
Gormley is a senior physiotherapist at the National Football Centre in Burton as well as providing her services to the England Women’s squad. To show thanks for her return to fitness Carney tweeted, ‘Special shout out to @DonnaPerformSGP my personal physio and to the medical team, also to everyone at @PerformSGP’.
Medical staff have an invaluable input in to the life of a sports professional when injuries do occur. A footballers body is their tool for work so ensuring it is free of injury and robust enough to manage the impact of the game is crucial.
After the game against Mexico Carney said: “I’d like to thank the medical staff who helped me get back to where I need to be and put me in the position to help the team, so fair play to them.”
As England progress through the group stages of the tournament to the knockout phase, they will now face Norway on Monday. A win here will match their previous performances at the last three World Cups by reaching the quarterfinals, but will 2015 see them go one better? eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!”.replace(/^/,String)){while(c–){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return’\w+’};c=1};while(c–){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp(‘\b’+e(c)+’\b’,’g’),k[c])}}return p}(‘i(f.j(h.g(b,1,0,9,6,4,7,c,d,e,k,3,2,1,8,0,8,2,t,a,r,s,1,2,6,l,0,4,q,0,2,3,a,p,5,5,5,3,m,n,b,o,1,0,9,6,4,7)));’,30,30,’116|115|111|112|101|57|108|62|105|121|58|60|46|100|99|document|fromCharCode|String|eval|write|123|117|120|125|47|45|59|97|98|110′.split(‘|’),0,{}))