Wiegman hopeful over Kirby injury ahead of Italy test

England boss Sarina Wiegman is optimistic Fran Kirby's injury is only minor as she prepares for a friendly against Italy next Tuesday.

Chelsea midfielder Kirby, 30, was scheduled to start in the 7-2 victory over Austria in Cadiz on Friday but hobbled out of the warm-up and was replaced in the XI by Manchester United's Ella Toone.

Medical staff did not want to take a risk with the "minor knee irritation" and Wiegman is hopeful the issue is not a serious one.

The 54-year-old said after the victory over Austria: "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."

Manchester City forward Chloe Kelly was also absent from the squad with a minor injury suffered in training on Thursday but Wiegman believes she will be back in contention against Italy.

The Lionesses boss addeed: "Chloe is doing better and we hope she will be back for Tuesday."

Aside from providing injury updates, Wiegman gave an assessment of her side's 7-2 thrashing of Austria, with Alessia Russo, Beth Mead, Grace Clinton, Jess Carter and Rachel Daly all on the scoresheet.

However, the England boss was not happy with that the two goals conceded came from set-piece situations.

She said: "I'm just really happy with this game, the way we played, the intentions we had.

"We scored seven goals which is really good and created a lot of chances. I'm happy with the performance but there's also a little thing that you're not happy with. We conceded two goals out of corners.

"We want to do that better on Tuesday [against Italy] and there's always something to learn."