Arsenal forward Beth Mead has said she will be England's "No 1" fan at this summer's Women's World Cup, despite not making Sarina Wiegman's 23-player squad.
Mead hasn't featured for club or country since November, when she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament [ACL] in the Gunners' Women's Super League defeat to Manchester United.
The 28-year-old, who was the top scorer at Euro 2022, revealed earlier this month she was "ahead of schedule" in her recovery and refused to completely rule herself out of the World Cup, however Wiegman said at her squad announcement on Wednesday that she was “not willing to take the risk to push her too much”.
Mead, speaking to The Athletic at the House of WePlayStrong event in Eindhoven ahead of the Women’s Champions League final between Barcelona and Wolfsburg, admitted missing this summer's showpiece tournament will be difficult, but concedes her omission from Wiegman's squad is the right decision for both her and the Lionesses.
"[Wiegman] spoke to me two or three weeks ago and as much as we’d both love for me to go, I think a decision for what I put forward was that I want to play my best football, which right now I probably won’t because I’ve not had the opportunity to play enough minutes,” Mead said.
“As a player that is tough, because if I had gone, people would have expected me to be at my best level and probably right now it’s not feasible for me to do that.
“Sarina laid it out, I’m in her future plans; she wants me fit, she doesn’t want to risk me at a certain level and for my ACL to go again, because I’m at a higher risk to do it again. So I think it was a clever decision in the end."
She added: “I’ve gone in with quite a level head through the whole process, kept in regular contact with Sarina and if I’m given one per cent of hope I’ll be motivated to try and get as close to that as possible because that’s the type of person I am.
“Now that’s gone I’m going to be number one fan for England and I’ll be rooting for them every step of the way.”
Mead's focus is now firmly on ensuring she is in shape to return to the pitch for the 2023/24 season, and the forward believes there are parallels between missing out on the 2020 Olympics and her current situation.
“I think if I were to retire next year I would have told (Wiegman) I was absolutely fine, but hopefully I’ve got a few more years in me yet to do things with England and Arsenal," she said.
“I think I set myself that goal, I didn’t get there, and my new goal is to be in the best position possible for pre-season.
“The one thing that I take out of not going to the Olympics was I got a good pre-season and probably played my best season on a football pitch, so you can always make a positive out of something and that’s what I’m very good at most of the time.”
Mead is one of a host of top players to be missing this summer's World Cup through injury, with England captain Leah Williamson also set to be sidelined after rupturing her ACL in April. And the 28-year-old believes scheduling has a to play in the number of injuries encountered across the board in the women's game.
“You go to a World Cup, it’s the biggest competition you can go to and you’ve got some of the best players sat at home watching because of too many games, being overworked, scheduling, it’s tough," Mead said.
“Obviously that’s a big frustration for myself as a player that’s injured right now. Was it one game too many? When I’ve looked into it I’ve gone from 2,000-odd minutes to 4,000-odd minutes in a season, which is a big and steep jump.
“We want the game to go to that level, but it’s keeping our bodies up to that level to do that and it’s caught up on a few of us, which is a shame, but injuries are part of football.”
