England stalwart Georgia Stanway grateful for support of ‘mentor’ Luke Chadwick

Georgia Stanway has revealed she is leaning on the support of former Manchester United midfielder Luke Chadwick to navigate the highs and lows of England’s World Cup campaign.

The Lionesses, who are bidding to reach the final of the competition for the first time, will take on tournament co-hosts Australia on Wednesday in Sydney for the right to face Spain – 2-1 victors over Sweden in Tuesday’s semi-final – in Sunday’s showpiece.

Bayern Munich midfielder Stanway was introduced to “mentor” Chadwick through her agency while she was still playing for Manchester City, and speaks to him at least once a week – even from 10,000-plus miles away in New South Wales.

Stanway said: “I’m not afraid to say it, I went through a time at City where it was a little bit up and down in terms of my mentality, my position, everything was changing.

“(Chadwick) was my go-to in terms of getting clarity on my position, clarity on what I wanted to achieve in that season.

“It’s just little things. You rely upon a good luck message before the game and he never fails. Always after the game he’s always the first to say something positive and then says, ‘Let me know when you want to talk’. It’s always on my terms, which is so understanding.

“He’s honestly one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet and he cares for absolutely everybody. And I think the most important thing is that he removes himself from any equation, and he’s just so focused on making sure that he improves the individual and wants them to be the utmost successful individual as a player and as a person.

“I think it’s just (about) finding yourself.  I’ve found what works for me, so I’m not going to change that.”

Chadwick, now 42, made his senior United debut just months after Red Devils won the treble in 1999, but the joy of seeing his lifelong dream fulfilled was soon overshadowed when the teenager found himself routinely ridiculed for his appearance on the popular BBC panel show They Think It’s All Over.

His mental health suffered severely. Chadwick became “obsessed” with what people might be thinking about him every time he left the house, later admitting in an interview on the club website that he “really did suffer in silence”.

Chadwick, who also played for England at youth level, was privately haunted by the experience for two decades before opening up in 2020, a revelation that resulted in an apology from presenter Nick Hancock.

He has since used his experience of facing adversity as fuel to help players like Stanway reach their full potential, a holistic approach that includes everything from pre-game goal-setting on the eve of matches to ensuring her Munich flat was fitted out with everything she needed.

Though still just 24, Stanway has evolved into one of the leaders on Sarina Wiegman’s 23-woman squad, one of seven England players in this tournament who also featured four years ago in France, when the Lionesses were knocked out 2-1 by eventual champions the United States in their semi-final.

Her maturing process has resulted in a new appreciation for facts over sometimes-misleading feelings when it comes to evaluating her own performances.

Stanway said:  “I am big on numbers. I could come away from the game feeling on top of the world and then my mentor could bring me back down to Earth, and say, ‘Oh, no, your passing was shocking today’.

“So it’s vice-versa and it’s just kind of (about) staying level and staying consistent and being consistent in the way that I am as a person and the way that I am on the field.”

England have been embraced by locals since they arrived in Australia nearly six weeks ago, but Stanway appreciates the semi-final match-up might have cooled down the warm welcome.

She added: “Everyone we speak to, they always say, ‘Good luck until you play Australia’, so we’re kind of feeling that a little bit now.”