Sarina Wiegman reveals Fran Kirby 'irritation' after seeing Chelsea star pull out of Lionesses lineup at last minute & also issues update on Chloe Kelly ahead of Italy clash

Having initially been down to start the friendly in Spain, Kirby's absence from the eventual 7-2 win over Austria was put down to some "irritation" with her knee suffered in the warm-up. Chloe Kelly, meanwhile, was already set to miss out due a minor training injury but has every chance of being involved for the upcoming Italy game.

Wiegman said: "Fran had some little irritation on her knee. In this moment, we're not going to take any risks with anyone. We just said: 'We'll take you off and assess it tomorrow.'

"Hopefully it's just a little bit of irritation and we can move on. Chloe is doing better and we hope she will be back for Tuesday."

Kirby has featured regularly for Chelsea this season, recording four goal contributions in 14 WSL appearances, but was forced to miss last summer's World Cup after undergoing surgery on her knee, and has yet to get back to top form for the Lionesses.

The Italy friendly is scheduled for Tuesday. It remains to be seen whether Kirby will be involved, but Wiegman has alluded to Kelly being declared fit and featuring. After that, the Lionesses will wait for their next set of fixtures to be announced ahead of the April international break.