Toone Replaces Bronze in England Squad for Greece Play-off — SkimNews
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- Ella Toone received a late call-up to the England squad for the Women's World Cup play-offs against Greece after being omitted from the initial squad alongside Arsenal's Chloe Kelly, with Wiegman saying they had not "played to their potential in my opinion in the last couple of weeks."
- Lucy Bronze withdrew from the squad and will return to Chelsea to manage a minor injury sustained in last weekend's WSL action against West Ham.
- Toone has scored 24 goals in 69 senior England appearances, won Euro 2022 and Euro 2025, and started in England's 2023 World Cup final defeat by Spain.
- Sarina Wiegman told BBC Radio 5 Live she was "really impressed" by Toone's response, who trained in Spain on a self-booked individual camp: "straight away she wanted to fix this. That showed her resilience and grit to come back."
- The first leg is Friday at the Pankritio Stadium in Heraklion, Crete; the second leg takes place Tuesday, 13 October at Leicester City's King Power Stadium.
- The winners face either Slovakia or Ukraine on 26 November and 5 December in a two-leg play-off, with the 2026 Women's World Cup scheduled in Brazil from 24 June to 25 July.
Why it matters: Bronze's absence strips Wiegman of a Champions League-level defender for both legs against Greece and potentially the November play-off against Slovakia or Ukraine, raising the defensive workload on the rest of the back line. Her recall of Toone rewards a player with two European Championship winners' medals and a World Cup final start, restoring proven big-game experience to a squad navigating two knockout rounds to reach Brazil 2026.
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