Leah Williamson injury: England captain set to miss World Cup after suffering ruptured ACL | Football News

England captain Leah Williamson is set to miss this summer’s Women’s World Cup after suffering a ruptured ACL in Arsenal’s defeat at Man Utd on Wednesday.

Williamson was taken off after collapsing to the ground only 12 minutes into Arsenal’s 1-0 loss at Leigh Sports Village, with her knee appearing to be the source of her discomfort.

A stretcher was called for and while the 26-year-old was able to walk off the pitch, aided by two Arsenal physios, a scan has shown her to have suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament, which normally takes at least six months to recover from.

That will mean she will most likely be unable to lead the Lionesses at the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, which runs from July 20 to August 20. Sarina Wiegman names her squad in late May and England’s opening game is against Haiti on Saturday 22nd July in Brisbane.

Less than two weeks prior to suffering the injury injury, she led England to the inaugural Finalissima trophy at Wembley, beating Brazil in a penalty shoot-out to land the second piece of silverware since Wiegman named her as captain ahead of last summer’s Euros.

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall initially blamed the Man Utd pitch for Wednesday’s incident and said he was unsure how long Williamson would be unavailable for, but in confirming the severity of her injury on Friday Arsenal have announced she will undergo surgery in ‘due course’.

“Everyone at Arsenal will be supporting Leah closely throughout the journey ahead and we would ask that her privacy is respected at this time,” the club said in a statement.

It is a major blow for England, who will also be without Williamson’s injured Arsenal team-mate Beth Mead – top scorer and player of the tournament at Euro 2022 – for the World Cup.

England boss Wiegman said in March, when naming her most-recent squad, Mead was unlikely to recover from her ACL injury in time to make her World Cup squad.

Well-wishes have already begun to come in from around the WSL, with Man City boss Gareth Taylor telling his pre-match press conference: “It’s not good for Leah or Arsenal or England. Best wishes go to Leah, it’ll be a tough moment for her, especially at this stage of the season.”