England Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman expressed her concern over a potentially severe knee injury sustained by forward Michelle Agyemang during England’s 3-0 victory over Australia. Her scream could be heard by those watching on TV as she left the pitch 13 minutes after entering it as a substite.
The young starlet Agyemang, who played a key role in the Lionesses’ successful European Championship defence this summer, was stretchered off the pitch, casting a shadow over an otherwise comfortable win at Pride Park, featuring goals from Aggie Beever-Jones, Lucy Bronze and a late penalty from Georgia Stanway.
The match saw Australia reduced to 10 players early on, with Alanna Kennedy being shown the red card in the 19th minute for bringing down Alessia Russo as she was making a run towards goal.
Agyemang entered the fray in the 62nd minute but soon fell to the ground clutching her knee in an incident away from the ball, leading Wiegman to comment: “It was an awful moment, doesn’t look good. We don’t know yet until she gets assessed but I’m not very positive about what I saw.”
She added to ITV: “Of course that looked horrible. When you’re stretchered off, it’s not nice anyway. It doesn’t look good. Of course, not confirmed but it looks bad.”
Beever-Jones opened the scoring with a powerful strike following the free-kick conceded by Kennedy, before Bronze added a second on her 34th birthday.
Stanway’s late penalty gave the final scoreline a more accurate reflection of the game, leading Wiegman to say: “Happy with the result, 3-0 is a good score.
“We started really well, dominated the game, put them under pressure in and out of possession.
“They went down to 10 and changed a couple things. We wanted to keep the pace, created a lot of good moments, saw a few more things we need to get better at execution.
“(The red card) was disappointing, and they are the rules. When it’s a qualifier we don’t care but with a friendly you want to play 11 v 11. That’s where you get the most. We tried to adapt to that straight away.”
The outcome represented a welcome bounce-back following England’s 2-1 defeat to Brazil, who also had a player dismissed, on Saturday.
Wiegman continued: “I really enjoyed this camp. The team came in a good place and everyone was excited to come back for the homecoming tour.
“It was nice to see those celebrations but at the same time getting ready for the World Cup qualifiers and want to use these games in the best way.”
Australia boss Joe Montemurro reflected: “We didn’t start well. England were more proactive, we didn’t get into any rhythm and the game changed with 10 players.
“There are opportunities to put in practice other ideas. Second half we made a few adjustments, limited opportunities in the box for England.
“They started well before the sending-off and we take it as a learning curve for us.”