England head coach Sarina Wiegman says Beth Mead was “not close” to making her return for the Lionesses this month.
Mead made her comeback for Arsenal at the weekend after spending over 300 days out due to a knee injury picked up in November last year.
The forward came off the bench and setup the winning goal for the Gunners as they scored twice in injury-time to beat Aston Villa 2-1.
Mead had hoped she could get a call-up to the England squad for their Women’s Nations League double header against Belgium later this month off the back of that, but Wiegman has said it is too soon.
“To be honest, she was not close,” said Wiegman. “She is in a good place now, [but] she has been out for nine months.
“She had her first minutes, which was very nice to see, and she was really happy, the crowd was very happy, so it gave a lot of energy too.
“But I think she first has to build at her club, show performance at her club, and get that consistency back.
“Then, of course, I hope she performs at that level that we hope she gets back on. Then we have an opportunity to select her and she has the opportunity to compete with the players who are in the squad right now.
“She has had an injury for nine months, she comes out of recovery, she is now building in training sessions, building in playing minutes.
“She just came on the pitch for the first time after injury, in a competitive game, and I think she came on in the 88th minute, and there was a lot of extra-time, so she played about 15 minutes.
“So now she has to get consistency. That has to do with her performance, but it also has to do with build and of course getting fitter and staying healthy.”
While there was no place for Mead in the latest Lionesses squad, Chelsea playmaker Fran Kirby is back.
Kirby injured her knee in February of this year and it forced her to miss this summer’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
The midfielder has made three appearances for Chelsea this season and looked sharp in the Blues’ 2-0 win over West Ham last weekend.
“Of course it is very nice that she (Kirby) is back on the pitch and she is fit and healthy,” said Wiegman.
“She was really happy when I called her and she is ready to go. You never know how much you miss someone who is not there. You just continue with the players who are available and, as we say all the time, the players who are available we go and play with, and I think they have done really well.”
England will take on Belgium at the King Power Stadium on October 27, before travelling to Leuven four days later to face them again.
The city is around 18 miles from Brussels, which was the subject of a terrorist attack on Monday night.
Two Swedish nationals were killed and third injured after the attack, which took place just three miles from the stadium where Belgium were playing Sweden in a Euro 2024 qualifier.
The match was abandoned at half-time for security reasons and around 400 Sweden fans spent the night in hotels under police protection. Wiegman says she feels safe to travel and play in Belgium, but the FA are in touch with their counterparts.
“Of course that is an awful situation - two people killed - very, very horrible,” said Wiegman.
“And of course the FA has conversations with the Belgian FA and it’s all about safety. I feel safe enough to go there and I haven’t talked to the players at the moment because they are at their clubs.
“But I do feel safe and there are conversations going on and I think they will do everything to make us safe.”
