Alex Greenwood shows off nasty eye injury as she jets home to ex-Premier League boyfriend

England ace Alex Greenwood’s gruesome eye injury was clear to see as the Lionesses waited to board their plane home from Australia after the Women’s World Cup final. Sarina Wiegman’s side were beaten by Spain on the biggest stage, with Olga Carmona scoring the only goal of the game in the first half.

Greenwood was involved in an aerial clash towards the end of the match that left her bleeding from the face, with Spain winger Salma Paralluelo accidentally kneeing the England defender on her way down. She bravely climbed back to her feet after a lengthy period of treatment and managed to play out the rest of the game without any further issues.

She was left with obvious swelling and a deep cut near her right eyebrow, with BBC commentator Rachel Brown-Finnis saying: “You can see the blood on Alex Greenwood’s head. It’s a high knee to the face from Salma Paralluelo. If it’s a patch-up job, Greenwood will stay on. If there is any whiff of concussion, then a key part of the defence will be gone. This is not a good sight.”

Greenwood later showed off her battle scars at Sydney Airport on Monday before flying back to the UK with her England team-mates. She was spotted with a heavily swollen black eye, while the cut beneath her eyebrow also stood out as she waited in the departure lounge.

The 29-year-old will be reunited with her boyfriend, former Premier League defender Jack O’Connell, upon her arrival on British shores. The pair grew up together as childhood sweethearts on Merseyside and O’Connell, who made over 160 appearances for Sheffield United before retiring earlier this year, has been in Australia to support Greenwood from the stands.

England’s players looked downbeat in their blue tracksuits at the airport but were clapped and cheered by locals, with several players stopping to pose for pictures alongside fans. They will now be forced to wait until 2027 for another shot at winning the Women’s World Cup, although they have been widely hailed for the impact of their journey to the final on women’s football as a whole.

Wiegman insisted after England’s defeat that she had no regrets with the way the tournament panned out, while she also gave full credit to Spain for winning their first Women’s World Cup at the expense of the Lionesses.

“I think we gave everything, the players gave everything,” she said. “We tried different tactics. I also have to give credit to Spain. I think they were the team over the whole tournament who played the best football.

“Everyone is very disappointed. I think we can be very proud of ourselves [but] it just doesn’t feel that way at this moment, that takes a little bit of time. But everything we’ve done, how we have grown into the tournament, the challenges we have before and during it, how we have adapted to situations. We have given everything that we could.

“Four years is a long time. We’re in a very short turnaround but we’ll start in September with the Nations League to qualify for the Olympics. You want to improve all the time and that’s what I see in the team. This group of players are so eager to be successful, so we want to grab every next moment and be better.”

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