Lauren Hemp has been preparing for the biggest game of her life with ice jackets and Lego.
There is a life-size replica of the Euros trophy made out of Lego on display at the fan zone in Trafalgar Square and Hemp is dreaming of getting her hands on the real thing. She enjoys relaxing by building Lego - she has currently got a model typewriter on the go - and it is difficult to find ways to chill out in the scorching temperatures.
The Lionesses face Spain in Wednesday’s quarter final with a huge opportunity at stake to win a home tournament and Lego helps Hemp stay relaxed at the England training base at the luxury Lensbury hotel HQ in West London. Hemp said: “For me personally, I am always pretty relaxed. I like to keep myself busy and I quite enjoy my Lego, so I am always keeping busy doing that. Paint by numbers also.
“It just keeps me occupied. Sometimes I don’t like sitting there watching TV. I like sort of cracking on with things. I enjoy playing table tennis, but on game day I am more focused and I like to just chill out. I try to keep things simple.
“I have struggled to find a Wembley Stadium, so at the moment I am doing a typewriter. It is pretty random, I just picked the first one I saw and got it sent to The Lensbury. Perhaps I should look for sponsorship. I saw the other day they had a lego version of the Euro 2022 trophy - but I don’t think they are available for sale.”
Lego are one of the tournament sponsors and might grasp a marketing opportunity by sending the trophy to one of England’s biggest stars as all eyes are on Hemp in a home tournament. This is a huge moment for the women’s game, a massive opportunity for the players to take England to the next level and win a trophy in front of their own fans.
England blew Norway away 8-0, put five past Northern Ireland and, if there were some nerves in the narrow opening win over Austria, there have been none since. But now they are into the business end of the tournament and preparation has been far from ideal because of the weather. Record temperatures and red weather warnings have affected their plans.
They have done their training sessions earlier in the day and have made sure they stay ice cool afterwards. Hemp added: “We’ve got ice jackets and things like that. Straight after the session we’ll go and put them on to cool down, things like that, whether it’s training early, to make sure we’re ready for the heat and well prepared.
“It’s never going to be easy at the quarter final stage. They have a lot of threats, they’re a great side but we know that on our day we can beat anyone and that’s what we’re going to try and set out to do.”
