Niamh Charles recalls the back injury that nearly derailed her career

Niamh Charles may be yet to get onto the pitch for England at this summer's Women's World Cup, yet making it to her first World Cup at 24 is all the more remarkable after a near career-ending injury that she sustained as a youngster.

Charles narrowly missed out on a call-up for last year's Euro 2022 triumph, making it onto the standby list, but has been a constant name in Sarina Wiegman's squad lists ever since.

But everything that she has achieved, including being at this World Cup now and her multiple domestic trophies with Chelsea in recent seasons, might never have happened because of an injury that nearly derailed her career in its infancy. Charles says now that is puts things into perspective.

"The first instance it happened, I was on a training camp with England, and I just sort of got contact in the back of my back," Charles said, speaking on the injury she sustained around the age of 17.

"I think it was to do with my coccyx, whether I’d sprained it or had some of the ligaments damaged around it because it is so sensitive and so central."

The versatile defender has moved around the pitch, struggling to make one position her own. Yet this quality has been a benefit to both Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, who has nothing but praise for the Lioness, and England boss Wiegman, who uses Charles mainly as a fill-in full-back- that was fully communicated to her ahead of entering prep camp for the World Cup.

Her Liverpool teammate at the time, Kate Longhurst, recently spoke on Charles' injury, "You got an injury to your back which I really thought might end your career," she told The Times. "You couldn't get out of bed without help, you couldn't sit down without pain, and every time you kept coming back into training, you had to drop out of the session and miss the next few weeks. I know this mentally drained you and lasted for over a year!"

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Charles, nowcapped seven times, revealed that she struggled to recover from the injury after it reoccurred sometime later, once again threatening her career.

"It took quite a while to settle down, and then it sort of reoccurred again," she said. "On another camp, I think I had the exact same situation. So not ideal and it was very frustrating, but it is one of those things."

Charles revealed that the injury was quite innocuous. However, the fact that it was not an aggressive problem is something she believes was almost harder to deal with at her young age, given the lack of clarity about what was going on with her body at the time.

"Being injured is really frustrating and hard, but I think also the fact that it was a bit innocuous, that presented a challenge in itself," she explained. "It was definitely hard, especially being younger as well. I didn’t have the experience in the environment to be able to advocate and say, ‘This is what I think I need'.

"So it was definitely a difficult time, but like I just said, injuries are part of the game, and I think now that I’m sat here, I’m in a much better place. I’ve taken the positives out of that lesson, although at the time, it was very difficult for sure."

Looking back on the past whilst sitting in an England media room at the World Cup, the defender reflected on just how far she had come and how that injury has made her a better footballer now, part of England's World Cup squad and making over 100 appearances for Chelsea since 2020.

"I mean, of course, I'd have wished I could go through my whole career, touch wood, injury free, but that's just not really that realistic. It teaches you a lot about yourself and also makes you realise that you’re a person as well as a footballer," she added.

"So, although I was young when it happened, and I probably still reflect on that experience now and what it taught me, and sort of, I hope it makes me better today."