{"id":230248,"date":"2025-10-28T14:37:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/230248\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T14:37:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T14:37:09","slug":"sophie-ecclestone-england-optimistic-she-will-play-world-cup-semi-final-after-shoulder-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/230248\/","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Ecclestone: England ‘optimistic’ she will play World Cup semi-final after shoulder injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

England are “optimistic” that Sophie Ecclestone will be fit to play in Wednesday’s Women’s World Cup semi-final against South Africa after suffering a shoulder injury. <\/p>\n

Left-arm spinner Ecclestone, who is the world’s top-ranked bowler in one-day internationals, fell awkwardly on her bowling shoulder while fielding during Sunday’s win over New Zealand<\/a> in their final group stage game.<\/p>\n

She was only able to bowl four balls in the game, though did pick up a wicket, before having to leave the field for treatment. <\/p>\n

“Results of an MRI scan on Ecclestone’s left shoulder indicate a minor injury to the joint next to her collar bone,” said the England and Wales Cricket Board.<\/p>\n

“She will continue to be assessed ahead of the semi-final against South Africa.”<\/p>\n

Ecclestone is England’s joint-leading wicket-taker in the World Cup so far, with 12 scalps alongside fellow left-arm spinner Linsey Smith. <\/p>\n

“We’re expecting her to be all right,” captain Nat Sciver-Brunt told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“Sophie is such a huge player for us so it’ll be great for her to be on that pitch tomorrow.”<\/p>\n

England finished second to Australia at the end of the group stage and take on the Proteas in Guwahati at 09:30 GMT, having thrashed Laura Wolvaardt’s side in their tournament opener by bowling them out for just 69.<\/p>\n

India and Australia play in the second semi-final at Navi Mumbai on Thursday but there is rain forecast throughout the week. Reserve days are in place for all knockout matches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England are “optimistic” that Sophie Ecclestone will be fit to play in Wednesday’s Women’s World Cup semi-final against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-230248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}