Emily Keogh

But over the past year, and then going back to 2023-24, Leah wasn't available for the England team.

So with her injuries, the team have probably figured out a way

to minimize the impact of her not being on the pitch has on that squad.

But I think not having her as a captain in the dressing room on a really big game like this is probably a bigger miss than having her on the pitch.

And that's not to knock the quality that she has, but that's to knock that sort of presence and that leadership that she brings to this team.

And we've seen what she's done with the Euros titles.

You know, she is an incredible leader.

And especially in a game like this, when there's automatic qualification on the line,

It's against Spain.

You want all of your leaders, you want everyone together sort of on the same page.

And she's one of the players that Serena would have looked to to really make sure that, one, the players are OK, they understand what they need to do, that they're sort of being able to manage that moment of the occasion, sort of alluding to the similar thing with the FA Cup, sort of managing the occasion versus the game.

And she's obviously not going to be there to do that.

And obviously with Millie Bright having retired last year, I think there probably is a lack of a couple of leaders in that team.

And that's probably a slightly bigger concern for Serena ahead of these games than her not being available on the pitch because she hasn't really been available much of this season, really.

So I think in terms of figuring out a partnership, we'll probably see someone, a partnership that we've seen before this season.

But yeah, I think it's going to be a big miss just not having her around the squad in the build up to these two games.

Yeah, no, not a lot on my agenda for the next couple of weeks.

I won't be doing the England Cup, unfortunately, but I will be on a hen do.

So we'll see.

We'll see how that goes.