Supporting Carter amid racist abuse has brought England closer, Stanway says

GENEVA, July 21 (Reuters) - England midfielder Georgia Stanway said supporting teammate Jess Carter amid the racist abuse she has received has strengthened the bond between the players ahead of their Euro 2025 semi-final against Italy on Tuesday in Geneva.

Defending champions England squeaked through to the semis after a penalty shootout on Thursday against Sweden, but the past two days have been dominated by talk about racism in football after Carter, who is Black, revealed she has been the target of abuse since the tournament began.

"If anything, it's brought us together as a team," Stanway told a press conference on Monday. "We need to cut it out of society. We need to cut it out of football. Right now, all we can do is show our support and our togetherness."

Asked whether she would consider not playing Carter on Tuesday, England coach Sarina Wiegman said the 27-year-old defender is ready to perform and compete.

"That says a lot about her and the team," Wiegman said. "We have had a conversation. It's a hard situation but Jess is a very strong person, she wants to move on too, but she and we felt we had to address this, we can't let it go."

There was concern around the fitness of captain Leah Williamson after she limped off with an ankle injury against Sweden, but the defender trained on Monday.

"She really wants to play, she did everything to recover as good as possible, and she has, she trained today, and if she recovers well she is available tomorrow," Wiegman said.

Wiegman denied a suggestion that England, who are making their sixth semi-final appearance of a major tournament, are the favourites.

"I think it would be really disrespectful to Italy to think we are the favourites. They made the semi-final like we did, it's impressive for any team to make the semis," said Wiegman, who has won the past two European championships, as coach of the Netherlands in 2017 and in 2022 with England.

"Complacency is the biggest mistake any team could make," she added. "We've seen how they've played. I don't think there's any way we could think we are the favourite. We have to be at our very best to win the game."

While England have traditionally taken the knee before kickoff as a symbolic gesture against racism, they have made the decision to remain standing on Tuesday.

"It's just to change it up," Stanway said. "We felt like the knee was just a little bit repetitive. It comes to a point where the knee isn't doing what we wanted it to do, so now our decision is to stand and hopefully that will bring up more conversation." (Reporting by Lori Ewing in Oberentfelden, Switzerland; Editing by Christian Radnedge)