Aston Villa ace Rachel Daly backed to fire by record scorer White
Rachel Daly has been backed to shine in Beth Mead’s absence if she wins the battle to lead the Lionesses’ line at the Women’s World Cup.
The versatile Villa striker, 31, is tussling with new Arsenal signing Alessia Russo for England’s No.9 jersey Down Under after Mead, the Euro 2022 golden boot winner, was ruled out of the tournament with an ACL injury.
Defender-turned-forward Daly scored 22 goals to finish as the Women’s Super League’s top-scorer last season and has hit 13 goals for her country since her international debut in 2016.
But it was Russo who was favoured in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Haiti – with Daly coming off the bench to replace her with 14 minutes to play.
Lionesses record goalscorer Ellen White, who racked up 52 international strikes before her retirement after England’s European Championship triumph last summer, is a fan of all options available and believes Daly has what it takes to fire Sarina Wiegman’s side deep into the tournament.
White said: “Rachel Daly has done well for Villa this season.
“Whoever is selected to be the No.9 will do an amazing job and will have my full backing.
“Russo has scored some big goals for Manchester United and obviously she’s got a big move coming up with Arsenal.
“She started a number of games since I retired at No.9 for England and then scored some good goals and performed well. And obviously Beth England can come on as well and make a big difference.
“It’s a tough position to play, I know that, but I think whoever takes on that role will do amazingly well, and I’ll be supporting them all the way.”
The Lionesses had not scored in more than four hours of football having drawn their World Cup warm-up games against Portugal and Canada 0-0 before finding the net from a twice-taken penalty to beat Haiti.
The 34-year-old was speaking at Actonian Girls FC as they launched a new junior team off the back of the Lionesses’ continued success.
England take on Denmark this Friday, and then China in their final Group D game on Tuesday.
And White insists Wiegman’s team will roar back to their clinical best, saying: “We’ve got more than enough talent, we’re creating chances,” she said.
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