Leah Williamson's 'emotional' return could provide crucial England boost after Sweden disappointment

As Leah Williamson watched from the stands at Sydney's Stadium Australia, she couldn't help but feel she had made a huge mistake.

The England captain was there to cheer on her teammates as they battled it out with Spain in the Women's World Cup final, having herself been ruled out of the tournament with a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It was a game fraught with tension — a game theLionesses would eventually go on to lose 1-0 — and Williamson admits to finding the whole ordeal pretty vexing.

“Being at the World Cup final and sitting next to Jill Scott was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made in my whole life," the defender quipped in a press conference on Monday. «Not being at the World Cup final, just sitting next to Jill.»

It was a playful jibe but one that only serves to underline Williamson's very real anguish at being unable to help get her team over the line in Australia. Of course, it is impossible to know whether her availability would have spared England the agony of falling short in football's most significant fixture, but how Sarina Wiegman's side would have loved to have had her leadership, experience and undeniable quality to call upon on that anxiety-inducing August night.

«Everything happens for a reason,» the Arsenal centre-back said as she sat alongside the Dutchwoman at Dublin's Aviva Stadium, where the Lionesses will take on the Republic of Ireland on Tuesday evening. «This was the path I had to be on.»

It was a typically thoughtful assessment from Williamson however, for everyone of an England persuasion, there is relief that the defender's path has now led her back here: to Wiegman's squad in time for what is quite possibly their biggest game since that painful defeat to Spain eight