England fear the worst after Keira Walsh stretchered off
INJURY BLOW: England's Keira Walsh after picking up an injury during the World Cup D match at the Sydney Football Stadium in Moore Park, Australia. Pic: PA
Group G: Sweden v Italy (8:30am, RTÉ2)
Group F: France v Brazil (11am, RTÉ2); Panama v Jamaica (1:30pm, RTÉ2)
Captain Wendie Renard is an injury doubt for France's mouth-watering clash with Brazil. Defeat would put fancied France in real trouble after the surprise draw with Jamaica.
A sixth-minute Lauren James goal was enough for England's second win of Group D, but that positive was overshadowed by a serious-looking injury to Keira Walsh, who was stretchered off in the first half.
The Barcelona star could clearly be seen telling the team's medical staff "I've done my knee" after sliding to collect the ball late in the first half. raising fears England's ACL curse has struck again. She was stretchered off and boss Sarina Wiegman expressed concern afterwards.
"Of course I'm concerned because she couldn't walk off the pitch, but we don't know yet, so we can't take any assumptions. Let's just wait until we really have a diagnosis and then we can tell you."
England are already without Euro winners Beth Mead and Leah Williamson to because of cruciate injuries, with Fran Kirby also missing.
Walsh later appeared on crutches, with ex-England striker-turned-pundit Ellen White telling the BBC: "(At the 2022 Euros) Everything came through Keira. There wasn't a plan B.
"I dreaded to think of the idea of us ever losing her because she was one of our best players. Beth Mead was scoring all the goals but all of our play came through Keira. She was the key cog, everything moved through her."
Wang Shuang kept China's campaign alive by converting a penalty in the win over Haiti at Hindmarsh Stadium in Adelaide, with the Asian side showing great resolve to claim victory despite Zhang Rui's red card.
"I think confidence plays an important role because even though we were fewer players, we never gave up," goalscorer Wang said.
Rui was shown a straight red card in the 29th minute for a reckless 'studs up' tackle on Sherly Jeudy.
Haiti had two penalty claims denied in a frantic closing spell, with coach Nicolas Delepine shown a yellow card for protesting the referee's decisions. Though he said his side had only themselves to blame for the defeat.
"We're a little bit riled up, if I may say, because it feels like it was snatched from us. But we weren't on top of our game today and that's where we lost, we lost because of poor performance. We didn't lose because of VAR."
Haiti have no points after two defeats, but can progress to the knockout stage if they beat Denmark and other results go in their favour.
Argentina still chase a first World Cup win but will at least go into their final group match against Sweden in Hamilton next Wednesday with momentum after scoring two goals in the last 20 minutes to rescue a point against Banyana Banyana.
Sophia Braun and Romina Nunez scored goals in a five-minute span late in the second half after South Africa had gone two up through Linda Motlhalo and Thembi Kgatlana. Both sides can still progress.
Swedish veteran Kosovare Asllani ahead of the meeting with Italy: "This World Cup is harder to predict than any World Cup so far. There are so many teams that have developed greatly. I'm generally very impressed with the so-called 'underdog teams'."
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