England star Lucy Bronze battled through injuries to help the Lionesses defeat Spain in the Euro 2025 final and retain the championship on Sunday
Lionesses return after Euro 2025: England fans cheer as team arrive home
Lucy Bronze produced a heroic effort to help lead England to glory at Euro 2025. The experienced full-back revealed that she had played the tournament with a fractured tibia in her left leg after helping the Lionesses retain the trophy.
Bronze, 33, boasts 140 caps for her country, but she displayed a remarkable spirit to earn the most recent handful of those. Only three of her team-mates played more than Bronze’s total 598 minutes in Switzerland, despite battling injuries throughout the Euros.
The Chelsea star managed a herculean 105 minutes as England triumphed over Spain in the final, having also damaged her right leg in the dramatic quarter-final win over Sweden. That performance summed up Bronze – scoring to bring the tie back to 2-1 before strapping up her leg for the winning penalty in the shootout, and perfectly fits in with her middle name, Tough.
Born Lucia Roberta Tough Bronze, the England icon was given her apt middle name as it is her mother Diane’s maiden name. Bronze displayed more than her fair share of toughness as she revelled in England’s penalty shootout triumph over Spain on Sunday.
“I actually played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia, but no one knew,” Bronze told BBC Sport. “I just hurt my knee today on the other leg. That is why I got a lot of praise from the girls after the Sweden game because I have been in a lot of pain.
“But if that’s what it takes to play for England, that’s what I’ll do – they know that. We inspire each other by playing through things like that and it got us to the end, in the end.”
Asked if her injuries would dampen her celebrations, Bronze added: “It’s very painful. I am going to party, I am going to enjoy it and that’s it.”
Taking to X, one fan wrote: “Lucy ‘TOUGH’ Bronze, you are superhuman.” A second posted: “Looked up Lucy Bronze to see how old she was and thought someone had been at the Wiki editing again, but no, no, her middle name really is Tough…”
A third said: “Nobody suits their name quite as much as Lucy Tough Bronze.” A fourth agreed: “There’s no one else but Lucy Bronze who would play the whole tournament with a fractured tibia. Her middle name is Tough for a reason.”
Bronze’s determination to help England win the Euros was encapsulated by her continuing to play through the pain until she was in tears when she was finally substituted. England boss Sarina Wiegman, who has won the Euros for the third time in a row as a manager, singled Bronze out for praise.
“She had some issues with her tibia so of course we tried to manage that,” Wiegman said. “When you play 120 minutes you’re not managing it are you? The whole team has a great mentality but she has a crazy mentality, it’s unbelievable.”
Bronze’s efforts were also not lost on her fellow Lionesses. “Lucy, I don’t… I have no words,” England centre-back Jess Carter said, as reported by The Athletic. “Lucy Bronze is just… I don’t even know. She’s incredible.
“Also, so stubborn to continue playing when she can’t run or walk. She’ll find a way through. Stubborn is the first thing but she’s a winner and winning is in her DNA. That’s what she wants to do. We all know that she’ll give absolutely everything for this team.”
Bronze has represented England at seven major tournaments, but did not give a definitive answer over whether she would aim to be part of the 2027 World Cup squad. However, her England and Chelsea team-mate Niamh Charles was unsurprised by Bronze’s sacrifice to help England to victory.
“She just gets on with it,” England and Chelsea team-mate Charles said of Bronze. “No one really truly knows how much she’s dealing with. To play on, that is pretty incredible but if there was anyone to do it, it would have been her.” Summing up Bronze’s legacy, Charles concluded: “Yeah, proper, proper English. She’s a credit to that and an England legend.”
