‘Stan’ By Me

A four-page interview with Lucy Staniforth, who made her senior England debut and scored in Kazakhstan ten years after reaching the last four of the U-17 World Cup in New Zealand. Having captained Sunderland and won their Player of the Year award, she moved to Birmingham City in the summer. Staniforth describes the moment as surreal, refusing to take her position for granted, and traces her focus to a January 2017 call from Mark Sampson telling her bluntly she was not fit enough, after which strength and conditioning coach Paul Parker harnessed her motivation. She is candid about two anterior cruciate ligament injuries, insisting there is no sob story and that others have had worse. She recalls being thrown back into the ice bath by Izzy Christiansen and Rachel Daly, and signing for Marc Skinner after hours in a service station.