Esme Morgan and her craft project for England’s Red Roses

England defender Esme Morgan’s love for arts and crafts is well known to anyone who follows the Lionesses on social media. The friendship bracelets she made for team-mates became much sought after, and she’s since extended her handiwork into cross-stitch, most recently completing a map of the British Isles while she was in camp during the summer’s Women’s Euros.

Now, however, she’s turning her attention to crochet for one key reason – to support the Red Roses at the Women’s Rugby World Cup.

“I’m on to a different project now,” she told SheKicks.net. “I’m doing some crochet for the England women rugby team, so hopefully I’ll get that done over the next few days and be able to show my support for them whilst they’re at the World Cup.”

Esme Morgan: Success is an addictive feeling

Morgan went straight back to her club Washington Spirit after winning the Euros with England, insistent that she wanted to get back to the business of winning matches as soon as she could rather than taking a break. She was back in the starting line-up for the Spirit’s match against Portland Thorns on Sunday, August 3rd, just one week after the Euros final.

“I’ve really, really enjoyed the games and physically, I feel okay,” she said. “‘m a little bit more tired than normal, maybe, but I’m working really closely with all the medical and performance team to make sure that we’re managing my loading and I’ve had an extra couple of days off here and there. I’m getting a couple of days off extra next week too.

“So I’m really satisfied with how it’s been managed, and I feel comfortable that should I feel the need to have some time or just take a little bit of a back step, that I’ll be really well supported, because the dialogue is really constant.

“But I’ve really enjoyed being back with the girls and being back to playing, and we’ve had a lot of exciting games. My enthusiasm for football coming back from the Euros was obviously really high, with just such a big motivation for us to go and win this year, because I feel like it’s such an addictive feeling having success with your friends, so came back really wanting to do that, and I feel like we’ve made good steps in that direction.”

“A good way to stay connected”

Morgan has spoken previously about how close she is with her Spirit team-mates, likening it to having “30 sisters”. She stayed in touch with them through the summer, with several of them popping in to Morgan’s apartment Stateside to visit a special resident – her kitten Biscuit, who she adopted from Wolf Trap Animal Rescue earlier this year.

“A lot of us spoke throughout the time [of the tournament], because they were all watching the matches, and I wanted to know how things were over here, and a lot of the girls were going to check in on my cat, so I was getting lots of little updates of Biscuit from them when they went round to play with her!

“So that was a good way to stay connected and stay in touch. But they sent a message before the final, I think it was, with all of them in my apartment, which is really cute and it made me really happy and proud.”

Washington Spirit play Chicago Stars on Sunday, August 31st.