Playing an entire tournament with a fractured tibia is the type of undiluted commitment and individual sacrifice which carried team to glory
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or some reason, as Chloe Kelly’s penalty hits the net and the England players explode across the pitch like streaks of white light, as Sarina Wiegman and Arjan Veurink embrace on the touchline, as England fans clutch each other in the stands, the eye is drawn to Khiara Keating of Manchester City.
Keating has not played a minute for England at this tournament. In fact, she has never played a minute for England at all. In fact, there was not the remotest possibility that she would play a minute for England at this tournament, and she knew this all along. Her entire Euros has consisted of training, travel and watching football from a hard bench. And yet at the moment of victory, nobody celebrates harder than England’s third goalkeeper.
It’s Keating who is one of the first of the substitutes to reach the ecstatic huddle of white shirts on the pitch, Keating being hoisted aloft by the second-choice goalkeeper Anna Moorhouse, Keating doing a funky dance in front of the England fans, Keating beaming behind Leah Williamson and Keira Walsh as the trophy is lifted amid a fanfare of ticker tape and smoke.
