Jess Carter’s teammate says supporting her after racist abuse “has brought us together as a team” –

England and Italy battle it out tonight at Women’s Euro semi-finals (20:00 BST, 21:00 CEST), the first match for the Lionesses since defender Jess Carter said that she was stepping back from social media after suffering “a lot of racial abuse”, deciding to leave her social media accounts to a team to deal with, a measure “to protect myself to keep my focus on helping the team”.

Carter’s message had a huge impact in England, as it spurred a wave of support from other teammates, the Football Association, UEFA and even Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who offered their support to Carter and the team, and “any players who have suffered racism, on and off the pitch“.

Midfielder Georgia Stanway, who spoke in the press conference before the match, said that this case has actually stregthened the bond between the players. “If anything, it’s brought us together as a team“, Stanway said on Monday. “We need to cut it out of society. We need to cut it out of football. Right now, all we can do is show our support and our togetherness.“

Meanwhile, coach Sarina Wiegman said that Carter is ready to play tonight. “That says a lot about her and the team. We have had a conversation. It’s a hard situation but Jess is a very strong person, she wants to move on too, but she and we felt we had to address this, we can’t let it go.”