England’s Fran Kirby relieved to prove her fitness in time for Euro 2022

Fran Kirby admits she had to block out any fear of missing out on the Euros – after winning her fitness race for England.

The Chelsea forward has been included in the Lionesses squad for next month’s home tournament despite not playing for the Blues since February.

She struggled with extreme fatigue and had an oxygen tent installed at her home to aid her recovery to ultimately seal a place in Sarina Wiegman’s squad.

“I wouldn’t say there was fear, I never really had in the back of my mind, ‘oh my God, I’m not going to get selected for the Euros now’, because I just wasn’t focusing my energy feeling like that,” said Kirby, who was an unused substitute in Chelsea’s FA Cup final victory over Manchester City last month.

“Going into Chelsea to training, I had conversations with (manager) Emma (Hayes) and just said, ‘look, what will be will be, if I’m ready I’m ready’.

“I’m a believer that things happen for a reason, and either I’m going to be part of the squad or I’m not. If I show, and I don’t get picked, then at least I know that I’ve done everything.

“There was definitely relief to get selected but I don’t think it was a case of thinking about it every day because it’s not in your control, it’s as much as you can do.”

Kirby has been dealing with the issue for around five years and has learned to listen to her body.

Her first minutes since February were as a substitute in last week’s 3-0 win over Belgium at Molineux and she could feature in Friday’s second warm-up game against the Netherlands at Elland Road.

But she admits it can be difficult to handle having been unable to pinpoint the source of the problem.

“It was extreme fatigue and extreme exhaustion. There was talk about underperformance fatigue syndrome, so there