The 34-year-old does not seem to be in Sarina Wiegman plans heading into the World Cup.
Houghton has made over 120 appearances for the Lionesses. But she hasn’t been called up since she didn’t make the Euro 2022 squad.
Houghton did make the provisional squad, but Wiegman made the choice to not bring her to the Euros.
This season, the Man City star has made 14 appearances in all competitions and with the amount of defensive injures the Lionesses have, fans were expecting to see her get the call up.
But it doesn’t seem that she is in Wiegman’s plans, as she wants to bring in more youth players to go alongside their experienced defenders. These players include Lucy Parker, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Esme Morgan and Niamh Charles.
The defender made her Lionesses debut back in 2007 with a home win over Russia and took over the captaincy back in 2014, but it was only in last April that she passed the captaincy over to Arsenal defender Leah Williamson.
Houghton has already played in 3 World Cups and was the captain in 2 of them, so she knows what it is like to be playing on the world’s biggest stage.
She also represented England in two Euro’s competitions.
The 34-year-old could have also represented England in the 2007 World Cup, but unfortunately broke her leg not too long before the competition was set to start. She would have only been 19 at the time.
In her Lionesses career, she has won the Cyprus cup 3 times, the SheBelives cup and got a third place medal in the 2015 World Cup.
The centre back has also scored 13 goals.
There is still a chance for Steph Houghton MBE to be selected for the upcoming World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in the summer, but if she has played her last game for the Lionesses, what a career she has had!
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