England defender Lucy Bronze has revealed she played through the entirety of Euro 2025 with a fractured tibia, after helping the Lionesses to a historic European Championship triumph. The 33-year-old started all six games during the tournament, including the dramatic penalty shoot-out victory over Spain in the final.
Bronze, the oldest member of England's squad, also defied the injury to play a key role in the quarter-final comeback against Sweden. She was eventually forced off with a knee injury during extra time of the final and could not walk during the celebrations in Basel, requiring a piggyback from goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse.
“I’ve played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia but nobody knew and I’ve hurt my knee today,” Bronze told the BBC after the final whistle. “It’s very painful but I’m going to party. We never lost belief in ourselves. There was a lot of noise on the outside but we stuck together.”
England's players and manager Sarina Wiegman praised Bronze's grit throughout the tournament. “Her mentality, the whole team has an incredible mentality, but she has a crazy mentality, it’s unbelievable,” Wiegman said after the quarter-final win over Sweden.
The victory over world champions Spain avenged England's World Cup final defeat to the same opposition in 2023, making the Lionesses the first England team to win a major tournament on foreign soil. “I don’t think we were thinking too much about the World Cup (final defeat),” Bronze said. “It always goes that they win, then we win, then they win so it was our turn today.”
