Sarina Wiegman will miss England’s final group game of the Euros against Northern Ireland on Friday evening after testing positive for Covid.
The Lionesses have secured top spot in Group A with a 1-0 defeat of Austria at Old Trafford and an 8-0 win over Norway in Brighton. The manager’s assistant, Arjan Veurink, who was also her No 2 with the Netherlands, winning a home Euros in 2017, will take temporary charge.
Wiegman will remain at the squad’s base camp at the Lensbury hotel in west London but will stay in remote contact with the players and her staff and will be tested regularly with a view to returning as soon as possible.
France suffered a blow as their key forward Marie-Antoinette Katoto was ruled out of the Women's Euros on Friday after suffering a knee injury in their 2-1 win over Belgium. Katoto went off in the 17th minute of Thursday's match and the French Football Federation said scans on Friday confirmed a sprain in her right knee and damage to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL).
The 23-year-old has scored 26 goals in 32 appearances for France, including a goal in their 5-1 win over Italy in their opening match of this Euros. She was voted the best player in the French first division last season. France are top of Group D and have advanced to the quarter-finals. Reuters
The 52-year-old’s chances of being back to full health before England’s quarter-final against the Group B runners-up, likely to be Spain or Denmark, next Wednesday are good. The centre-back Lotte Wubben-Moy tested positive last Friday before rejoining the group on Tuesday.
England are yet to lose under Wiegman, winning 16 of her 18 games and scoring 93 goals and conceding three.
Wiegman took charge in September, a year after she was announced as the long-term replacement for Phil Neville. She led the Netherlands to a first Euros victory in 2017, a World Cup final in 2019 lost to the USA and then to the quarter-finals at the Tokyo Olympics, where they also lost to the US.
