Lucy Bronze, the Euro 2025 winner who played with a fractured leg: 'Was it worth it? Absolutely!'
There was a chink in the indestructible warrior's armour.
Little did we know the 33-year-old had been playing the entire tournament with a fractured tibia. One wonders how you even walk with a broken bone in your lower leg, let alone play 106 minutes in a Euro final and 598 across the tournament.
Ask Lucy 'Tough' Bronze — her middle name taken from her mother Diane's maiden name. Tough by name, tough by nature.
'She has a crazy mentality; it's unbelievable,' said winning England manager Sarina Wiegman.
Bronze, England's most decorated footballer and making her 36th appearance at a major tournament, the most of any England player, found out she had fractured her shin bone after England beat Portugal 6-0 on May 30.
'I knew I was in a lot of pain at the end of the (domestic) season,' she said, hobbling, a white bandage strapped round her right thigh, following England's historic penalty shootout win against Spain.
And yet for two months, she carried on and started every game under Wiegman at Euro 2025.
'All the England players knew,' she said. 'Sarina (Wiegman) knew. I'll do anything to play for England. I've always said that.'
Bronze took that literally. A fractured tibia was not going to stop her.
She communicated her unbridled determination to her team by showing them a picture, which hangs in the team Dolder Grand's hotel in Zurich, of her being 'absolutely exhausted' after England lost to Sweden in the 2019 World bronze medal match.
'My 'why' has always been the same,' she said before the Sweden quarter-final.
'I'm very fortunate that my family get to follow me around and support me, but I'm someone who is based off of hard work and enjoying it. My 'why' was that I just love working hard and I love the game. It's as simple as that. Sometimes when the media gets involved and everything around the game (it affects my enjoyment), but I started playing football because I love it. That's literally it. When I loved it, I wanted to work hard.
'I will give anything and everything when I play in an England shirt. I wanted all the girls to know my why is to give everything for this team because I just love playing for England so much.'
Bronze received a 'little bit' of pain relief but had to spread out her dosage of medication. She has not been training all the time with England but still started every game this tournament, playing 598 minutes.
Only Hannah Hampton (630), Alex Greenwood (625), and Keira Walsh (599) played more minutes at Euro 2025.
'Lucy, I don't… I have no words,' said team-mate Jess Carter. 'Lucy Bronze is just… I don't even know. She's incredible. Also, so stubborn to continue playing when she can't run or walk. She'll find a way through. Stubborn is the first thing but she's a winner and winning is in her DNA. That's what she wants to do. We all know that she'll give absolutely everything for this team.'
Bronze hauled England through to the semi-finals. Against Sweden, she strapped her own injured leg, scored the goal to get the Lionesses back in it, and dispatched the penalty that sent England into the semis at the end of a farcical shootout. Even Wiegman, who rarely speaks about individuals, described her as 'one of a kind'.
'She just gets on with it,' said Chelsea defender Niamh Charles. 'No one really truly knows how much she's dealing with. To play on, that is pretty incredible but if there was anyone to do it, it would have been her'.
England's identity has been closely tied to the phrase 'proper England' and Bronze embodies that no-nonsense, steely mentality.
'Yeah proper, proper English,' said Charles. 'She's a credit to that and an England legend.'
Bronze is no stranger to playing through pain, having done so throughout Euro 2022 and yet she remains one of England's cornerstones. Her superhuman efforts have kept competition at bay.
'Was it worth it? Absolutely!' said Bronze without hesitation.
After the Lionesses' Euro 2022 triumph, the right-back was offended that anyone would question whether she would be with England at the following year's World Cup. 'I'm only 30,' she said. 'B****y hell! How many players retire at 30?'
But when asked if she would go for an eighth tournament, namely the 2027 World Cup in Brazil, Bronze remained coy.
'What is it now? Seven? I've actually played in the Olympics,' she smiled, deftly rendering the question defunct.
Unbeknown to the wider world, she has played through unimaginable pain when there was no guarantee of success. Call it foolish, stubborn or pure guts, there is no one like Bronze and there will never ever be again.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
England, International Football, Women's Soccer, Women's Euros
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