Some sit glued to other matches being played around the country, others escape and watch Love Island. They roam the streets of Teddington in search of the best coffee and retire to the chill room to compete on the basketball arcade machine, at darts and at pool. Sarina Wiegman has worked hard to set up a training-base environment that gives the players freedom. ![]() There is a relaxed vibe at the Lensbury hotel. Before maybe I’d get a little bit too worked up in the moment, now I’m just enjoying myself and living in the moment.” Now, with England having won the group with a game to play, against Northern Ireland on Friday night, there is the possibility Kelly might get her first start. That is definitely a nice place to be in, she adds. Whereas before, I’d get quite nervous before games, when I speak to my family now and they ask if I’m nervous, I don’t really have those nerves as I did before because I’m thinking: ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ I’ve been through the worst … I have to enjoy every moment, playing with no fear.” Play the game, Live the life, Be the Playr.You take. “When something like that happens to you and you’re away from the game for so long I think nothing really fazes you afterwards. The first football game to let you experience the life of a footballer, through the eyes of a footballer. “I enjoy myself, I’m just living in the moment, enjoying the moment. “I’ve got a completely different look on things and a different mentality,” says the 24-year-old. Now, though, she is enjoying her first major international tournament with a very different mindset as a result of her experience with the knee injury. Kelly had been a certainty for the Olympic team, having impressed for City, scoring 10 goals from the wing before her season ended. Now, I’m here, I enjoy every moment of being with the team, supporting the girls on the pitch, thinking: ‘What can I do to support the players on the pitch and how can I bring something when I do come on the pitch?’ So, yeah, it’s a different look on things but I’m just enjoying myself.” “That was difficult for me, but I knew I had to focus on my rehab and my journey in that moment. “I didn’t actually watch any of the Olympics because I couldn’t face watching it,” says Kelly, whose journey over the last 13 months is illustrated through the snaking scars on her right leg as she sits in the team hotel in south-west London. Kelly had ruptured her ACL in the penultimate game of the 2020-21 season in May, ruling her out of the team for Tokyo and much of the new season, putting her in a race against time to get fit for England’s Euro 2022 squad. Last summer, Chloe Kelly soaked up the atmosphere around the men’s Euros as a fan, but the Manchester City forward couldn’t bear to watch Team GB’s women’s team compete at the Tokyo Olympics.
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