Man City star pulls out of Lionesses squad with injury

Manchester City midfielder Jess Park has withdrawn from the Lionesses squad ahead of next month’s Women’s World Cup and has been replaced by former Manchester United midifelder Lucy Staniforth.

Park, who spent last season on loan at Everton, was not included in Sarina Wiegman’s 23-player squad for the summer tournament in Australia and New Zealand but was included in the stand-by list alongside Maya Le Tissier and Emily Ramsay.

The 21-year-old was training with the Lionesses ahead of the World Cup warm up game against Portgual at Stadium MK on July 1 but has now been forced to pull out and will head back to Manchester for treatment on the shoulder injury which kept her out of Everton’s end of season run in.

Replacing her on the standby list will be Aston Villa’s Staniforth, with the midfielder joining up with the group at St George’s Park today and the Lionesses camp have confirmed she will remain with the squad up until the opening match against Haiti in Brisbane on July 22.

The 30-year-old has already been capped 17 times by her country and formed part of the World Cup squad in 2019, where Phil Neville’s side reached the semi-final stage at the tournament in France.