Sarina Wiegman says she will “never close the door” on Steph Houghton returning to the England squad but says the former Lionesses captain’s chances of going to the World Cup are “not that high” because she feels her current centre-backs do not deserve to be dropped.
The England head coach was speaking in the build-up to Tuesday’s friendly against World Cup co-hosts Australia, and was asked to respond to comments made by 34-year-old Houghton, after the Manchester City defender opened up about being left out of the England squad in an interview on Sunday.
Houghton had told BBC 5 Live Sport that she respected Wiegman but wanted “closure” on whether or not she was part of the Dutchwoman’s plans, adding: “I’m realistic to the fact that I probably won’t go to the World Cup but as a player and as stubborn as I am, anything can happen so I just need to make sure I’m ready. As a player, sometimes you just want some indication and honesty.”
Asked on Monday if she could envisage a scenario where she would recall Houghton for the World Cup, Wiegman replied: “It’s hard, at the moment she [Houghton] is in a hard position because I don’t want to take out the players who are in that position, because they’re doing really well.
“So the chances are not that high but I will never close the door, because when you are in international football and you are England coach, you want everyone to be available too, so [if] things happen for some players that situation changes. But at this moment, I make other choices.”
The next squad that Wiegman names will be her provisional World Cup squad this summer, ahead of the tournament Down Under which begins on 20 July. She initially named Houghton in her very first Lionesses squad after taking charge, in September 2021, and named her as captain, but Houghton suffered an achilles injury in training and has subsequently not made any appearances for the national side since Wiegman arrived.
“Steph is a very good player, a very experienced player and I have a lot of respect for what she has done for the women’s game and she has come back in the squad for Man City,” Wiegman added. “But the players I have now in that position I don’t want to take out because I think they perform really well. That’s the reason why.
“It is difficult because she has done so much for the game, it’s difficult with everyone because everyone trains so hard and so does she, she wants of course to come back. But we had some more players [who] I really had to disappoint with the choices I made. That always makes it hard but what I try to do is communicate it and give some context about my choices.”
Houghton has 121 caps for her country and led the Lionesses to three consecutive semi-finals at major tournaments in 2015, 2017 and 2019.
England’s meeting with Australia, ranked 10th in the world, in this final friendly before the summer, when the Lionesses are expected to arrange some warm-up games before getting their World Cup campaign under way against Haiti in Brisbane on 22 July.
Manchester United’s Ella Toone described facing Australia as “another big game”, adding: “We want to test ourselves against top opposition. We learnt a lot from that game [beating Brazil on Thursday] and every game we play we watch back and make sure we learn from.”
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