Leading Lionesses: who could replace Leah Williamson as England captain?

Sarina Wiegman’s trust in Greenwood was emphasised when the England manager named the Manchester City defender as the Lionesses’ captain for their Arnold Clark Cup win over Italy in February. Greenwood has also captained City in Steph Houghton’s absence and recently stressed she is not daunted by wearing the armband for club or country. “It’s a massive honour,” she said. “But it’s a responsibility I accept and quite enjoy. I don’t think of it as a pressure.”

Wiegman was particularly impressed by the maturity with which Greenwood, a former England youth captain with 73 caps, accepted spending most of the Lionesses’ successful Euro 2022 campaign on the bench. She lost her starting place on the left of central defence when, on the eve of the tournament, the manager opted to relocate Williamson from midfield to centre-half.

Although she now prefers to play the latter position, Greenwood was originally a left-back and remains extremely capable in the role. With Williamson removed from the World Cup equation it seems inconceivable that City’s set-piece specialist will not regularly start games in Australia.

She has been part of the England scene since the 2015 World Cup in Canada where she was the youngest member of Mark Sampson’s squad and subsequently became a favourite of Sampson’s successor, Phil Neville. Greenwood’s partner is the Sheffield United defender Jack O’Connell. “Often all Jack and I talk about is football,” she said last year. “We watch it and analyse it all the time.”

After becoming national captain under Sampson in 2014 and leading England to the semi-finals of the 2015 and 2019 World Cups and the 2017 European Championship, a ruptured Achilles tendon prefaced Houghton losing the armband last year. After 12