We were playing the British Police, UK Armed Forces, Combined Services, Wales over 40s and Wales over 45s. We won all 5 games and I was delighted to score 4 goals over the weekend.
Never plain sailing
My England journey has been far from an easy ride, having work really hard to get through trials and selection, I was beyond excited to get my official letter from the Chair of Selectors to say that I had been selected. What happened next was unbelievable and left me devastated. So less than 1 week after my selection, with 4 weeks to go to the first match, I had an accident whilst snowboarding and unfortunately broke my shoulder after a very nasty fall.
So roll on 9 weeks and was given the go ahead to play (although not technically true, my physio and I had, but maybe not the consultant), by all accounts I had defied recovery times, clearly sticking religiously to my rehabilitation plan, desperate to get back on the pitch again. I managed to play at the recent Home Nations tournament in Swansea, where we were victorious in every game. Personally, my performance was far from back to my best, but there were glimpses it was coming back, clearly still a lot more work to do. Disappointingly I didn’t manage to get on the score sheet, which for a striker was not the best. Fortunately, I play in such an incredible and dynamic squad that I left that bit to the others!
Roll on another 3 weeks to this weekend just gone. This time fully signed off and past the 12 week mark, my fitness was looking good, again sticking to the tight plans that we have been set, as well as trying to run the Company. Thank goodness for my amazing team at Rockley, I know this is our busiest time of the year on the water and we have all been working long hours to look after the 100s of students we have had over the past few weeks.
And the striker scores!
It’s a big commitment for sure playing for England, the demands on you physically and emotionally can take their toll. Staying at the peak of fitness, coming back from an injury, balancing very busy work life and home life has been a challenge, but very much worth it. Thankfully I have had some amazing support from home and family that have made the difference.
Finally, this weekend I was rewarded with my first starting line up in the first game, personally I felt that I am starting to get back nearly to where I was before I broke my shoulder, but still have a bit to go. I managed to score 4 goals over the weekend and as a striker, that’s quite a relief. The bigger deal though was how we all played as a squad. It was the culmination of months of hard graft and training and finally it’s all come together very nicely. We won the tournament, scored lots of goals and only conceded 1 goal.
Bringing it home!
To be part of this squad is an inspiration and an honour. I am playing with amazing players who will have no idea the impression they are leaving on me and the level that they have helped and supported me in this journey.
We now have just over 2 weeks before the World Cup in Barcelona, where we will get to show just how awesome we are on the World stage. Are we ready? Yes we absolutely are! Are we going to win? Of course we are!
Rockley has been a big part of the journey and as a company I have been so lucky that they have supported me and the rest of the squad in our route to the World Cup, so a massive thank you!
We'll keep you updated on Pip and the England's Team progress during their bid to win the Worlds in Barcelona this August. Good luck ladies from everyone at Rockley!