Villans Daly and Nobbs can be heroes for the Lionesses

Freya Gregory believes Aston Villa team-mates Rachel Daly and Jordan Nobbs will have a "massive impact" for England at the Women's World Cup.

After lighting up the Women's Super League with Villa last season, the duo are part of the Lionesses squad bidding for glory in Australia and New Zealand.

Carla Ward's Villans finished a club-best fifth and reached the Women's FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 2022-23.

And Daly and Jordan Nobbs could be joined in action by Lucy Staniforth, who is on standby and has trained with the squad prior to Saturday's opener against Haiti.

Explaining how important her club-mates will be, winger Gregory, 20, told LiveScore: "Massive. People see what they do on the pitch week in, week out, but being with them every day you see how hard they work.

"Lucy got called up as well, which I think is huge for her and massively deserved. She had an unbelievable season and probably went a little bit unnoticed.

"She does the dirty work and works so hard — the same with Jord and Rachel. They all deserve to be there.

"It's great because to us they're not players, they're our mates. I think they'll have a massive impact."

Daly dose

Last term was particularly impressive for Daly, who scored 22 goals in 22 WSL games to win the Golden Boot.

Despite that, the Villa star remains locked in a battle with fellow hotshots Alessia Russo and Bethany England to lead the line for the Lionesses.

But in Gregory's mind it is an obvious choice to make. She added: "I mean, Rach won the Golden Boot, didn't she! 

"We all know she can score goals with her left foot, right foot, head. We know it's only a matter of time before she scores the next one.

"I'm always going to back my team-mates and Rach is an unbelievable player, so I'd love to see her score a couple of goals — maybe even a hat-trick here and there — at the World Cup!"

Villa thrillers

The Villans are well represented at the tournament, with France ace Kenza Dali, Switzerland winger Alisha Lehmann and New Zealand keeper Anna Leat also Down Under.

As a diehard Villa fan, Gregory is delighted to see her colleagues making a splash on the world stage.

She said: "It shows the progression of the club. We've got world-class players in this team and this is why we succeed. It's huge. 

"We've got players in so many of the teams and it's massive for Villa to have such an international presence. 

"We're really excited to watch them — even if it's a 9am kick-off in the UK we'll be up to watch the warm-up and everything. We're really excited to see them play."

The next step

After last summer's Euro 2022 success, England Under-23s ace Gregory is backing Sarina Wiegman's side to conquer the world.

She added: "We all know the talent we have in this team. I think it's a really special time for these players and we saw at the Euros how strong they are mentally and physically.

"So it's only a progression from that and I have no doubt they'll succeed in the ways they want to."