MAISIE SYMONDS’S journey from an England fan watching the Lionesses win Euro 2022 from the stands to her own first international call-up has been far from straightforward.

The 22-year-old Brighton midfielder – named in Sarina Wiegman’s 24-strong squad for the upcoming Nations League doubleheader against Belgium – was at Wembley for England’s greatest moment to date a little shy of three years ago, by then a regular herself at under-19 level.

When Symonds travelled to the final, she had thought she was suffering with a cold. But after reporting for Brighton’s pre-season training camp, she would be hospitalised with glandular fever and hepatitis, a combination which then led to a ruptured spleen.