12 May 2015
Loughborough University Alumni named in England Women’s Football World Cup Squad
The FA has announced their squad for the Women’s World Cup in Canada next month, which includes Loughborough University alumni Siobhan Chamberlain and Claire Rafferty.
Chamberlain, who currently plies her trade for Arsenal Ladies, studied Sport & Exercse Science at Loughborough University before going on to earn an MSc in nutrition. Capped 33 times already, the goalkeeper has represented England at the previous three World Cups and will feel at home in Canada having played for Vancouver Whitecaps earlier in her career.
26 year old Chelsea left back Claire Rafferty has just nine Lioness caps to her name, no thanks to three anterior cruciate ligament ruptures, which would have ended the career of many lesser women. None-the-less the Loughborough University economics graduate, who now juggles football with working as an analyst for Deutsche Bank in the city, heads to Canada in good form and will be hungry to make up for lost time.
“Being away made me realise how much I wanted to get back into it, and that I wasn’t finished yet. I hadn’t reached my potential and I wasn’t willing to let an injury stop me from doing that.
“Getting back playing for England was a massive goal for me and at once stage I didn’t know whether it was going to happen because I didn’t know if I was going to get back to my best. It’s taken me a year and half since my last injury to get here but it’s all been worth it.”
England begin their World Cup campaign against France on the 9th June in Moncton, before further Group F matches against Columbia and Mexico.