How do the Lionesses replace injured Georgia Stanway? Six options for Sarina Wiegman to consider in England midfield dilemma

Arguably the most obvious contender for Stanway's place in midfield is Grace Clinton. The 21-year-old is most naturally a No.10, but she has played in the deeper role before under Wiegman, and impressed in doing so. Indeed, the England boss said with real confidence last week that she believes in the youngster's ability to thrive as a No.8.

Yet, while Clinton might be most people's pick for the position, her candidacy has flaws. The most significant of those is that she's not been playing a lot lately for Manchester United. Clinton made her first start of the year in the Women's Super League on Sunday, but did so as a right winger. She's not in a great rhythm when it comes to game time in general, never mind the fact she's not playing in that No.8 role - or even in midfield.

Still, she'll come into this camp with a spring in her step, having marked that first league start of 2025 with a goal as the Red Devils overcame real adversity to defeat Crystal Palace.

If she had a little more experience under her belt at international level, Laura Blindkilde Brown might actually be the most popular pick to fill in for Stanway. The 21-year-old has played regularly in the No.8 role at Manchester City this season, including in five of her six Champions League starts, and has adapted well to a position that wasn't as familiar to her before she joined the club in January last year.

However, Blindkilde Brown only made her Lionesses debut in their last outing, against Switzerland in December. She's got a lot of senior club football on her CV despite her young age, having debuted for Birmingham City as a 16-year-old and then become a key player for Aston Villa, but is still establishing herself on the international stage. She's also not playing week-in, week-out in Manchester, though is getting a decent amount of minutes given the variety of competitions the team are in.

There will be opportunities in this Nations League campaign when Wiegman opts to give the young midfielder more experience, but she's unlikely to become the de facto starter in Stanway's absence at this early stage.

There is a real battle to become England's No.10. Unlike the No.8 role, there are a plethora of candidates for that position, with Clinton and Blindkilde Brown among them. Another in contention is Jess Park, but she, too, could be a player Wiegman considers dropping into a deeper role to cope with Stanway's absence.

Park has played a little further back at times with Man City and she has plenty of the attributes that are needed to succeed in the role - she's tenacious, she works hard and she's comfortable receiving the ball in all areas of the pitch.

However, it's still a position she doesn't play often enough, it's one that certain areas of her game aren't best suited for and it also stops her being able to impact the game as much from a creative standpoint, especially when compared to how she thrives in the attacking midfield role.

In a similar vein to Clinton and Park, Ella Toone's primary position is in that No.10 role, but she is likely to be another player Wiegman is assessing when thinking about who to play deeper over this next week or so. It's not a position Toone has played a lot but, like Park, she has those battling qualities and the confidence on the ball to make it work to the best of her ability if indeed she was asked to adapt for the sake of the team.

Alternatively, perhaps Wiegman could deploy a more attack-minded midfield in the first game of this February international break, away at Portugal. While Francisco Neto's side should certainly be respected, having become a regular qualifier for major tournaments in recent years, they will be a team that the Lionesses expect to dominate - certainly more so than Spain, who they face a few days later.

As such, England could well cover for Stanway's absence in their first game of 2025 by lining up with two No.10s ahead of Keira Walsh, in the holding role. Given her electric recent form, that midfield would likely feature Toone and someone else, probably one of Park or Clinton. It would be a temporary solution, and one only suited to particular opponents, but is at least a potential answer to this problem for some games.

Before Leah Williamson dominated at centre-back in England's run to the Euro 2022 title, she was thriving as a box-to-box midfielder, linking up with Walsh brilliantly in the middle of the park. Williamson played that role all the way through the Lionesses' preparation for that tournament - until the very last minute, when she was moved back into the defence in the final game-and-a-half before the Euros kicked off. Since then, she has exclusively played at centre-back, with the midfield experiment consigned to the bin.

Could it, however, return in these circumstances? Williamson played as a No.8 growing up and showed real quality there in the build-up to the Euros three years ago, evidence that she'd not forgotten how to excel in the role over time. It wouldn't be easy for her to be thrown back in there now, certainly not with Spain due to come to town, but she is perhaps the player most natural to the role in this whole squad.

It'd be a surprise to see it, but not a surprise if Wiegman was considering it, given she lacks an obvious solution to this issue, plus the fact that the Arsenal star would add some defensive steel to the midfield ahead of the visit of the world champions.

As well as switching to a midfield made up of one holding player and two No.10s, the other potential formula change in the middle of the park that Wiegman could opt for is a more defensive one, with two holding midfielders and just one playmaker. England's lack of depth in this area isn't restricted to Stanway's role, as it also concerns Walsh's position. Her closest competition for her place under Wiegman has been Katie Zelem - a player who hasn't been called up since December 2023. Yet, there is an emerging talent in the current squad who fits the bill, even if she is young and inexperienced at this level. That's Ruby Mace.

Like Blindkilde Brown, Mace won her first Lionesses cap in their last outing, against Switzerland in December. She played well and showed real confidence on a big occasion, even if there are improvements she needs to make to become an England regular. That's not out of the ordinary for a young player on debut.

While switching to this more conservative midfield would make more sense for the Spain game, it would be quite a baptism of fire to throw Mace in for that occasion. Instead, the Portugal fixture could present a good opportunity to give the 21-year-old another chance to show what she can do, and allow Wiegman to gauge more of her potential.

A midfield with two naturally deeper players doesn't have to be as conservative as it sounds, either. Indeed, Walsh played alongside Patri Guijarro at Barcelona a lot, despite both being seen as No.6s. England and Barcelona are extremely different teams, of course, but that is to say that Walsh does have the experience of how to operate when alongside someone who often plays as the holder. It would be a little experimental, but perhaps that is what this situation calls for.