{"id":457717,"date":"2026-02-04T11:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457717\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:24:07","slug":"jess-fishlock-wales-great-discusses-future-role-with-rhian-wilkinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/457717\/","title":{"rendered":"Jess Fishlock: Wales great discusses future role with Rhian Wilkinson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fishlock is Wales’ record appearance maker and goalscorer, having won 166 senior caps and scored 48 times.<\/p>\n

She stepped away from Wales duty in the wake of Euro 2025, the country’s first major international women’s football tournament, insisting it was “the right time”<\/a> after her farewell appearance in a friendly against Australia. <\/p>\n

On the idea of playing some part for Wales in their 2027 World Cup qualifiers against Czech Republic and Montenegro in March, Fishlock remains coy.<\/p>\n

“I would love to stay involved in some capacity; it wasn’t a clean break – I still text the girls all the time. But we will just wait and see,” Fishlock told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

Fishlock played 18 times for Seattle Reign last season and helped them qualify for the end-of-season play-offs in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL).<\/p>\n

Her contribution at club level has led some in Wales to suggest she could still play a full part as Wilkinson’s team attempt to qualify for the Women’s World Cup finals for the first time.<\/p>\n

But though Fishlock says she misses her international team-mates, she has reiterated that the time has come for the next generation to take over.<\/p>\n

“People have said, if you are back you may as well play,” she says. “But it is still the right time not to play internationals.<\/p>\n

“I still want to help any way I can, my experience being around might help. But no, no thoughts about coming out of retirement.”<\/p>\n

Fishlock also has no regrets about the Euros, despite Wales being outclassed in a group with France, Netherlands and eventual champions England.<\/p>\n

Wales lost all three games while conceding 13 goals<\/a>, leaving them with the worst group stage record in the history of the competition.<\/p>\n

“I still look back at it with such pride and joy,” Fishlock says. “Getting to represent the entire country, it was even more impactful that I thought it was going to be.<\/p>\n

“Seeing how Wales showed up for us, that was the best part of it all. As a competitor it hurt, but the whole world seeing who we are as a nation overrides it.<\/p>\n

“I still get goosebumps coming out for the first game [versus Netherlands] and seeing the Red Wall – it will stay with me forever.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fishlock is Wales’ record appearance maker and goalscorer, having won 166 senior caps and scored 48 times. She…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-457717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}