Ella Toone breaks into a big grin. “No idea, but I absolutely love it,” she says in her thick Lancashire accent. The 23-year-old midfielder has been asked the name of the game England have been playing in training at the Sunshine Coast Stadium. “Four teams, one big ball in the middle and you’ve just got to whack the ball with your football, and it can’t go over to your side basically,” she says. Hilarity ensues when Sarina Wiegman sweeps up the ball, which is almost as big as she is, at the end of the game and comically runs, or waddles, to the side of the pitch with it.
“This is the first time we’ve played it in Australia and it definitely brings up a lot of laughs,” Toone says. “It’s a fun game to get us going and start the session with.”
It is the day after England’s final warm-up game for the World Cup, a 0-0 draw with Canada in a behind-closed-doors friendly. “It’s important to have that bit of fun on the pitch, that enjoyment, and just that team togetherness really,” Toone says. “Those fun games always put a smile on people’s faces and days like today, after a game day, it’s always quite difficult to get out on the pitch – your body’s not 100% – so to have those little fun games always helps.”
Tyldesley-born Toone is enjoying life in Queensland. England’s Twin Waters pre-tournament base camp nestles against the coastline and is teeming with kangaroos.
“I’ve been doing amazing things in Australia,” says the increasingly animated Manchester United player. “I’ve really found myself here.” Everyone in the vicinity is laughing. “I never normally wake up early, I’m a proper sleeper, but I woke up early the other day – six o’clock – and went and saw the sunrise. I absolutely love walking along the beach. And the other day I went into the sea as well. Luckily the girls got me some goggles as I can’t go in with my [fake] eyelashes on. I was under the waves every single day and I thought: ‘Wow, this is me.’” Alessia Russo later says Toone, her best friend, has been in only once.
“Going in the sea has definitely, really made me a changed woman,” says Toone theatrically. “It’s got me trying different things and I’ve actually started reading a book as well. I always say it [that she will read a book], but I’ve actually started reading so that’s nice. I’m reading Jamie Vardy’s autobiography at the minute. I don’t actually read novels, just autobiographies, and they’ve got a few pictures in, so that helps!”
Toone is gloriously normal. She’s just a girl from north-west England who loves football. All day, all the time.
“I find it difficult to switch off; I don’t switch off from football,” she says. “As I’m growing up I’m learning to do it a lot more, trying to find different things that make me happy away from football so I can switch off mentally. I know it definitely helps when you find something else and can switch off. But yeah, for me, I’m a hundred miles an hour, I want to be on my feet every day, I want to play football every single day, I moan when we have a day off in the week. So it is definitely hard, but something I’m learning to grow up with and use to my advantage.”
That frenetic energy made Toone such a handful coming off the bench alongside Russo at last summer’s Euros. Now, with Chelsea’s Fran Kirby not in the squad because of injury, she is a likely starter and although she doesn’t like to not play football, the post-season break was needed.
“I’m feeling good at the minute,” she says. “It was nice to have that time off, that break away from football, it helped me refocus, helped me mentally and physically as well, and I’ve come back feeling 100% ready to go … I feel fitter, stronger, and those connections on the pitch are developing day in, day out.”
Those connections need to click rapidly, because England have not scored in three games. “We’ve had a lot of games under Sarina, we’ve had a lot of different goalscorers who have scored so many goals,” Toone says. “I don’t think it’s anything that we’re worried about. We’ve had time off, we’ve come back together, we’re learning how to play with each other again, we’re finding those connections on the pitch and we’re having those chances. I think I’d be more worried if the chances weren’t coming. It’s now about us putting them away. I don’t think that we’re dwelling on that. We’re very confident.”
Does she dream about scoring in a World Cup? “I always dream about that. I’m quite a big manifester. I manifest a lot of things before I play games and half of them never happen but I’m having fun in my brain. I’ve dreamt about scoring a goal in the World Cup since I was a little girl. I’ve dreamt about scoring at this World Cup and every time I do, for a celebration I have absolutely no idea what I’ll do. My celebrations just go everywhere, and I just start running off. Hopefully I can nail down a little celebration before that happens.”
