Lionesses' Alex Greenwood 'conscious' after being carried off on stretcher following head clash
Alex Greenwood was carried off on a stretcher after crashing heads with a Belgium player during England’s Nations League match on Thursday night.
It saw England suffer another setback in the league as a late penalty from Belgium captain Tessa Wullaert saw them finish with a 3-2 defeat in the host's city of Leuven.
Greenwood collided with Belgian forward Jassina Blom with around 20 minutes into the game, knocking both players to the ground.
England's defender was treated by medics on the pitch for about 10 minutes before being taken off on a stretcher, with Jess Carter coming on as her replacement.
A subsequent post from the Lionesses’ official X account said Greenwood was “conscious and talking, and… being monitored by our medical staff.”
Blom, donning a head bandage, was able to continue.
While England's Bronze and Kirby both scored, two goals from Wullaert and an early one from De Neve saw Belgium take the win.
Lionesses' boss Sarina Wiegman, whose side had beaten the Belgians 1-0 in Leicester last Friday, told ITV: “This was a game (where) I think we should have been tighter on the ball.
“We weren’t as great in the tempo. We did create lots of chances, we still dominated the game totally, but at moments we lost the ball and then they were gone on the counter-attack. They had five, six moments like that and then they got two or three chances. So it was really us that made it (for) ourselves so hard.
“They played tough, were very compact, and as soon as they win the ball then they were trying to play the counter-attack, and that’s something we really have to get out of our game.
“And besides that, we did create lots of chances but we just have to do better in the final third.”
She added: “We were sloppy on the ball and they were ready for that. We have to be tight, especially in the build and create, at moments we don’t expect to lose the ball, and we didn’t do that good enough today. That’s a hard lesson for us.”
This competition provides England with the opportunity to secure a Paris 2024 Olympics qualification spot for Great Britain – they need to finish top of the group to have a chance to do that, something they are in danger of failing to achieve after their second defeat in four matches in the pool.
With six points, they are now three behind table-toppers the Netherlands – 1-0 victors over Scotland on Tuesday – and one behind Belgium.
The final two rounds of fixtures see England play the Dutch, who beat them 2-1 in Utrecht in September, at Wembley on December 1 then Scotland at Hampden Park four days later.
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