Lucy Parker has stated that she has had constructive discussions regarding her concerns over West Ham not playing women’s matches at the London Stadium
Lucy Parker took to Twitter to express her disappointment that West Ham has not played any women’s matches at the London Stadium. She responded to the announcement of the men’s U18s team playing an FA Youth Cup semi-final at the stadium with a tweet saying: “When will we get a game at the stadium?
Parker has since stated that she has had positive discussions with the club regarding the matter.
“Only WSL [Women’s Super League)] side not to have a game at the men’s stadium and haven’t played there since 2019. Made an FA Cup semi-final last year too so can’t be that.”
“For me, I just believe that we as females have a responsibility to leave this game in a better place and that’s the only place that my frustration has come from.”
West Ham’s women’s team board, which includes vice-chair Karren Brady, aims to achieve the goal of hosting a match at the London Stadium, despite the fact that the club does not own the ground.
When England face Brazil in a sold-out Finalissima on Thursday at Wembley, there is a chance that Parker may make her senior England debut in front of a packed crowd.
“There’s always that stress of ‘will my chance come again?’“
Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman has called up Lucy Parker for the upcoming match against Brazil. Parker was previously included in the squad for last October’s friendlies against the United States and the Czech Republic, both of which were sold out. However, she had to withdraw due to an injury sustained while playing for West Ham.
Parker tells of her England recall
The 24-year-old said of the prospect of Thursday: “I think it’s going to be a crazy experience. When I withdrew from the previous camp I still went to watch the game and it was crazy even from the stands, so to be on the pitch on Thursday will be incredible.”
Describing her emotions when she had to pull out of the squad before, Parker said: “It was a hard time, to sort of wrap my head around what had happened and probably to date, it was mentally one of the toughest things I’ve experienced, because playing for England has always been sort of the end goal for me.
“There’s always that stress of ‘will my chance come again?’. But I had spoken to Sarina upon leaving that camp. And she just said ‘just focus on getting back fit and we’ll take another look’.
“It meant a lot. Leaving was hard, but knowing I just needed to get my body in a good place and get back playing and do the best I could to make her notice me again.
“I was cleaning my bathroom and missed her call. Then we played phone hookie for a little bit and I eventually got hold of her.
“[It was] happiness and relief that the chance had come back again and just pride. The second we hung up, I rang my mum. There were a lot of happy emotions.”
