Lucy Bronze admits knee injuries meant she never targeted 100 England caps

On the eve of her 100th appearance for England, Lucy Bronze has admitted the severity of the knee injury she suffered during the early stages of her career meant she never targeted reaching a century of caps for her country.

Bronze suffered four serious knee injuries and underwent surgery by the time she was 18, leaving her sidelined for two years.

The right-back will earn her 100th cap on Tuesday evening as the Lionesses face the Czech Republic in a friendly at Brighton's Amex Stadium.

"I was told at 20 years old that I wouldn't play past 27 and I'm 30 so I'm not doing too bad," Bronze said. "I think that's why I never set 100 caps as a goal for England, I just wanted to play as much as possible.

"I guess I've just had to work hard on being focused, doing everything right and just hope for the best and I've had a pretty successful career doing the things that I've done and my knee injuries haven't held me back too much.

"I guess I'm not that sentimental; it's obviously a huge achievement and I've always celebrated every player that's reached 100 or 50 or their first cap, and the likes of Jill [Scott] or Fara [Williams] who have done a crazy amount of caps. It's just another game for me - if I do play."

Bronze pauses to glance sideways at England boss Sarina Wiegman, sat next to her in the pre-match press conference.

"She'll play," Wiegman confirms.

"There you go, I'm not being rotated... it's obviously a huge achievement but I think it's like any other achievement I've had in my career, it's something I'll look back on once I've retired and think: 'oh, that was amazing' but right now it's another game, and once I've got 100 I'll want 101, and two, three, four and just keep going.

"It will be a nice occasion and nice landmark to hit. I don't think it was something when I first started at England I never really had that goal of: 'I want to have 100 caps'. But to have made it that far is pretty incredible. I think I'm like the first and only one from my generation so it's pretty special for me."

Brighton holds fond memories for England, with the Amex having hosted two particularly iconic matches as part of the Lionesses' journey to Euro 2022 glory; the record-breaking 8-0 win over Norway, and dramatic extra-time victory over Spain in the quarter finals.

However, had Bronze not missed England's pre-Euro 2022 friendly against Switzerland due to illness, her 100th cap could have come in an even more illustrious setting: against the world champions the USA at a packed out Wembley Stadium last Friday.

"My brother's coming all the way from Sheffield to Brighton with his family because before the Euros I was a little bit ill and I missed the Switzerland game," Bronze explained. "And I was a little bit ill because my niece made me ill - my brother's daughter.

"So now he's like 'we have to come all the way to Brighton to watch your 100th cap, because it should have been at Wembley but we got you ill before the Euros'."