Sarina Wiegman refuses to say if Keira Walsh could play again at World Cup

Sarina Wiegman has refused to confirm whether Keira Walsh could play any further role in the World Cup after the midfielder sustained a knee injury in England’s 1-0 defeat of Denmark.

The Football Association said on Saturday that Walsh did not have an anterior cruciate ligament injury but has not given any further update. The 26-year-old, who did not travel to Adelaide for Tuesday’s final group game against China at the Hindmarsh Stadium, “is OK”, said Wiegman.

“We said that it’s not an ACL; I can’t give you any more information,” England’s manager said. “We are only focusing on the game tomorrow. After that we will continue. I think we have a strong enough team; I think every game we want to be at our best. We know she’s not available. We have a group of 23 so now we have a group of 22. We have our solutions – and we’ll show that.”

Wiegman was asked whether, with Walsh, Leah Williamson, Beth Mead, Fran Kirby and Ellen White missing from last year’s Euros starting XI, this was when she really earns her keep. “Of course, it’s not nice to lose players, firstly for them and secondly for the team,” she said. “But we’re here to move on. It’s not nice but we have to adapt and find a way. We will have 11 players on the pitch who we think can win the game.”

England need a point against China to win Group D. China and Denmark are on the same points, goal difference and number of goals scored with Denmark ranked higher based on their head-to-head record, having beaten China 1-0. If China beat England and Denmark defeat Haiti, all three will finish on six points.

England laboured to 1-0 wins against Haiti and Denmark and Wiegman said they must keep possession better. “We had moments in both games where we played really well and moments where we lost the ball too much,” she said. “We want to keep the passing game in a good place and try to create chances to score goals. That’s the main thing – to keep control of the game as much as possible – because sometimes that’s really hard.”

Without Walsh, England will look very different. The midfielder has been absent only three times in Wiegman’s tenure and China’s manager, Shui Qingxia, said she would “look at different scenarios” with the Barcelona player out. “We will engage in formation and tactics that we are familiar with,” she said. “We might be more adventure-taking or we might be more conservative.”

China have not scored against a European side and need at least two goals against England to reach the last 16. The captain, Wang Shanshan, said: “Team China, over the past few years, partly owing to the pandemic, has not engaged with many friendly matches, especially with our European friends. There is a gap for us to fill in to get adapted. The rhythm and fast pace is something we need to learn from our opponents to narrow the gap.”

Shui said: “If we want to demonstrate our very best in more matches, we need to have more friendly matches or higher-level warm-up matches.”