England fear for Agyemang after 'horrible' injury

DERBY, England -- Sarina Wiegman said Michelle Agyemang 's injury looked "horrible" after the young striker was stretchered off in the second half of England's 3-0 win over Australia on Tuesday.

England comfortably saw off Australia at a sold-out Pride Park just three days after losing to Brazil.

Australia were reduced to 10 players after 19 minutes when Alanna Kennedy was sent off for hauling down Alessia Russo, and goals from Aggie Beever-Jones and Lucy Bronze gave them a 2-0 lead at half-time. Georgia Stanway added a late penalty in second half injury time, but the win was overshadowed by Agyemang's injury.

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Agyemang, 19, who excelled for England in Euro 2025, went down in agony after injuring her knee in the 73rd minute. After a lengthy stoppage, she was stretchered off the field. And post-match, Wiegman confirmed that she feared the Arsenal striker -- on loan at Brighton -- had suffered a serious injury.

On ITV, soon after the match, Wiegman said: "Of course that looked horrible. When you're stretchered off, it's not nice anyway. It doesn't look good. Of course, not confirmed but it looks bad."

And later, Wiegman told the media: "Well of course it was an awful moment, it doesn't look good. She needs to be assessed, I'm not very positive about what I've seen."

Beever-Jones also left the field injured, walking off in the 84th minute, but Wiegman said that was due to a dead leg.

The injuries marred what was a comprehensive victory for the Lionesses. England made five changes from their 2-1 defeat to Brazil with Hannah Hampton, Beever-Jones and Bronze starting, while Wiegman handed debuts to Taylor Hinds and Lucia Kendall.

All five played well, with Aston Villa midfielder Kendall receiving the player of the match award.

"I was not really surprised, she's done so well with Aston Villa," Wiegman said of Kendall's performance. "She came into our environment and straight away you saw her understanding of the game, and the way she connected with players."

And of the general performance, Wiegman said: "Of course I'm happy with the result, 3-0 is a good score. We started well, dominated the game and played in their half. We wanted to put them under pressure and that's what we did.

"The game changed -- they went down to 10 which changes things. We wanted to keep the pace in the game. We created a lot of very good moments until the final third, and I hope we're going to improve that. We need to improve that execution."

Australia's Ellie Carpenter described the defeat as "one we want to forget" and said it was "hard to come back" from their early red card.

She faced her Chelsea teammate Beever-Jones and described the England forward as a "world-class player" and showed "why she should be a regular starter" for the national side.

Joe Montemurro, the Matildas' manager, said it was a match which will serve as a "learning curve"..