England's EURO diary: Lotte Wubben-Moy

It’s been a week since I joined back up with the squad and it is great to be back. I had woken up and started to experience some symptoms so as soon as that was the case, I tested. 

When you see the positive result, it feels pretty surreal but my rational brain kicked in pretty quickly and I said to myself ‘there is nothing you can do about it now and I hope you haven’t passed it on to anyone’, which I hadn’t. Then it was a case of getting myself healthy again because I am here to do a physical job and Covid can obviously have implications on that.

It was great to be back for Friday night’s game and then on Saturday we had a more laid-back blow-out session. In past sessions, we have been worked really hard physically but with the quarter-final in mind, we had a more laid-back blow-out session and we were able to decide what we wanted that session to look like. 

The players – including myself – were adamant that we wanted to have a blow-out though and it started with some head tennis, which was fun. Chloe Kelly and I peaked a bit too early. There were three courts and after spending most of the tournament on the winner’s court, we ended up on the loser’s court. So that was funny and a good introduction to the session. Then we had some passing and shooting drills before we did some runs at the end. 

The blow-out was in the morning and then we had some free time in the afternoon. They have some bikes here at the hotel which you can use and there are some beautiful parks around here, like Hampton Court Palace, Richmond Park and Bushy Park. So I managed to get on the bike over the weekend, which was lovely.

In the evening we had a BBQ and Jill Scott had delegated that we all spend £20 on a partner who was drawn out of a hat and you had to both buy each other an outfit with the money. You can imagine there were quite a lot of really awful outfits.

I had Nikita and we decided to be nice to one another. She bought me a great outfit and I asked my Mum to design a t-shirt for her because I am not someone who is into fast fashion so I wanted to give her something which was more purposeful. I hope Keets liked it.

We then wore the outfits to the BBQ in the evening which was fun. Ella Toone had to dress up as an inflatable lobster, so that sets the tone of how bad the outfits were. Beth England looked like she was going to Ascot, with the hat on and a really garish dress. So I came off lightly!

On Sunday we had the whole day off and it was nice because people were able to really switch off, relax and were more chilled. I was out on the bike again and I went along the River Thames. Quite a few of the girls went out on the kayaks and motorboats, which is really nice. Some people have been getting takeaway coffees in Teddington and we also have the barista hut here. So there was a lot of coffee drinking and a lot of chatting. It was nice and chilled.

Obviously, Monday was really hot. I had a chat with Kay Cossington in the morning and she is a Southerner like me and we said to the girls’ ‘This is normal and everyone is just moaning because they don’t get as much sun up North’. But all joking aside, the way we have handled the heat has been reflective of how the team, the staff and everyone involved have been super adaptable and versatile this whole tournament so far. We changed training time to a time which was cooler, so we started a fair bit earlier and managed to get our training session in, which is fab and makes such a difference as it alleviates the stress that the heat can put on your body. 

So our day started off early and then we were trying to stay out of the sun and stay in the air-conditioned rooms, stay hydrated and be as relaxed as possible. 

I got my book out and had a bit of a read. I’m reading a book called ‘Creative Quest’ by the main drummer for the band The Roots, which I am enjoying and is something different. I actually have a few books on the go. That is my English language book and then I am reading Johan Cruyff’s autobiography in Dutch. 

While I am away, I don’t really speak Dutch as much. Obviously, I have Sarina as well who I can talk to in Dutch but I haven’t been speaking it as much so I have been trying to keep my Dutch going through reading while I am away.

On Tuesday we had training early in the morning to avoid the heat of the day and then the focus switches to travelling and getting to Brighton so we can get the show on the road. 

We have an exciting few days coming up with the quarter-final. It is a pretty tasty game so we will be trying to conserve our energy in every way we can and preparing in the best way possible for the game.