Lauren James has admitted she wanted her England team-mates to miss their penalties in the Euro 2025 quarter-final shoot-out against Sweden for fear of being singled out for racist abuse by online trolls.
James failed to score her spot-kick but that was followed by misses from Beth Mead, Alex Greenwood and Grace Clinton before the Lionesses eventually progressed 3-2.
The Chelsea winger said she felt relieved given the abuse suffered by Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka for their misses in the men’s Euro 2020 final against Italy.
I know what comes with missing – James
She told BBC Sport: “Stepping up, I was thinking, if I miss I hope I’m not the only one because I know what comes with it – it happened before and keeps happening.
“As sad as it sounds, it was the biggest relief ever that other players missed. Who would have thought that? You always want your team-mates to score so you get through.
“Luckily we missed and got through, but it was not a nice moment – you are playing for your country so you should feel the support from the fans. It shouldn’t matter what colour you are.”
James started all six games for England in Switzerland but sustained an injury against the Swedes that meant she failed to appear during the second half of the semi-final against Italy or the final against Spain.
She added: “I was obviously fighting to be fit for the Euros, then suffered another injury in the quarter-finals, and tried to play on.
“Then people assume you’re not trying, but at the end of the day I’m in a ridiculous amount of pain which caused me to come off at half-time in the semi-finals and before half-time in the final.”
Injury struggles took their toll on James
The 23-year-old said dealing with the injury, and accusations of a lack of effort, had taken their toll.
“A lot of the time fans don’t know what is going on, they only know what is in front of them,” she said.
“They don’t know what someone is dealing with, what is going on in their life. I always say to the fans, be mindful, you don’t know what someone is dealing with out there. You could just be adding on to it.
“No player goes into a game or into a season thinking I’m not going to try. It was a Euros, they don’t come around often. You could have one leg hanging off, I will still tell you that I’m going to try to play.”
England eventually retained their European crown but James felt the criticism, and the injury, tarnished the achievement for her personally.
“It was an amazing achievement, but during the last two games I wasn’t able to help the team,” she added. “To also get negative comments, from fans and the public – sometimes people are too quick to judge.”
