Lucy Bronze playing on with a fractured tibia: The pain, the preparation, the risk

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Amid the elation and euphoria of England’s women winning a second consecutive European Championship on Sunday, their right-back Lucy Bronze revealed on camera that she had played all six matches of the tournament with a fractured tibia in her left leg. It was, she said, in typically understated fashion, “very painful.”

The 33-year-old played 598 minutes in Switzerland, starting every match as England inched their way closer to retaining the trophy. While almost nobody watching knew the pain she was fighting through, everyone saw her resilience.

During the quarter-final against Sweden, with England two goals down and 11 minutes of the 90 to go, Bronze took matters into her own hands, scoring the goal that halved the deficit and set the defending champions back on the path to victory. Later in that same game, she could be seen strapping up her own thigh (on the right leg) while the England physios were occupied with patching up her team-mates, only to rip off that tape 30 minutes later so she could smash home a crucial penalty in a chaotic shootout.

Those moments drew much-deserved praise for Bronze’s character, from within the England camp and beyond it, but only those on the inside knew the extent to which her toughness was being tested with every minute she was on the pitch during Euro 2025.

To those who know her best, it’s perhaps no less than they expect from a player who came through multiple knee surgeries earlier in her career, when player support was nowhere near the level it is now, and who also played through pain as England won the previous European title three years ago.

Even so, making it through an entire tournament playing on a fractured tibia is perhaps pushing the boundaries of what can reasonably be expected from any footballer, no matter how resilient they are.

How, then, did Bronze do it?

The exact nature of Bronze’s injury remains known only to the England and Chelsea medical teams. However, based on available information, it is most likely a stress fracture: a small, hairline crack in the tibia rather than a complete break, says Geoff Scott, former Head of Medicine and Sports Science at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

“Playing an entire tournament with a complete fracture would almost certainly be impossible,” Scott tells The Athletic.  “Whether a player can perform with a fracture depends on a range of biomechanical and functional factors: The specific bone involved, the location and pattern of the fracture, and the extent of damage to surrounding soft tissues. These all help to determine whether the injury is stable enough to withstand the forces generated during play.

As the tibia is a major weight-bearing bone subjected to considerable stress when running or kicking, Scott says it is “an impressive feat” to play through any fracture to this bone.

Scott explains that the decision to include Bronze in the squad despite the injury would only have been made after careful consideration. “Before the tournament, the medical team would have needed to be confident not only that she could tolerate the pain, but that she could perform at the level required for the European Championship and be a valuable asset to the team.”

Bronze showed no signs of injury on Tuesday’s victory parade in London (Harriet Lander/Getty Images)

“The England medical team would also have consulted orthopaedic surgeons who specialise in these types of injuries. They must have been satisfied that the fracture was stable, safe to play on, and unlikely to impair her performance. She would certainly have been playing through pain but clearly, both the nature of the injury and her resilience enabled her to continue.”

How much pain? It’s impossible to know. Every player, and person, will experience that differently. And when it comes to elite athletes, it’s even harder to quantify. Some players are able to push through injuries that would sideline others thanks to years of conditioning, mental resilience, and a high tolerance for discomfort. Add to that the surge of adrenaline experienced during high-stakes matches, and the pain can become temporarily manageable, or at least ignorable.

After the victory over Spain on penalties in the final, Bronze told reporters she had been “in a lot of pain at the end of the (club) season” but she only discovered the reason for this pain and the full extent of the injury – a fracture to her tibia – after England’s Nations League win over Portugal at the end of May.  The nature and intensity of Bronze’s pain likely evolved over time, depending on how much load she was putting through the injured area. “The severity and nature of her pain would have changed as the injury progressed and according to the stresses placed on it,” explains Scott.

Despite the fracture, Bronze played every match of England’s campaign.  After the final, she confirmed she had been given a “little bit” of pain relief during the tournament, likely in the form of paracetamol or anti-inflammatories. While these medications are modest, Scott notes that they “can make quite a significant improvement in allowing players to perform when carrying an injury.”  Furthermore, Scott explains that Bronze’s medical team would have had to choose her medication carefully due to anti-doping regulations.

“By monitoring and restricting her training sessions with the team they successfully enabled her to start every game.  In the end, her performance, and her ability to manage the injury, was a blend of medical strategy, mental toughness, and sheer determination.”

It’s possible, though, that there is another aspect which could be considered when it comes to how Bronze fought her way through so many physically demanding games at the Euros.

In an interview with Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4 the day after the final, her mother Diane said that when discussing the injury together, her daughter told her she had “a high pain threshold. I can deal with pain.”

Bronze was diagnosed as autistic in 2021 and has spoken openly about how her differences impact her on and off the pitch, describing herself as having a “hyperfocus” on football.

In an interview with the BBC earlier this year, Bronze said: “People always say, ‘Oh, you’re so passionate about football’. I don’t know if I’d say I’m passionate, I’m obsessed… Training every day is amazing for me. Some of the other girls will be like, ‘Are you sure you’re 33, because you don’t stop?’. All the things I have because of autism have worked to my advantage.”

Bronze lifts the European Championship trophy in Basel (James Gill/Getty Images)

How does this relate to her injury? Clinical psychologist Dr Lucy Kearney explains that autistic people have “different sensory sensitivities, meaning they experience their senses potentially slightly differently to people who aren’t autistic.”

Interoception refers to our ability to sense internal bodily signals such as hunger, thirst, pain or a full bladder. In autistic individuals, this sense can be either heightened (hypersensitive) or diminished (hyposensitive). Those who are hyposensitive may require stronger internal cues to notice these sensations. For example, they might not recognise feelings of hunger or pain until they become quite intense, which can sometimes result in a higher apparent pain threshold.

Alongside this is the high level of focus Bronze mentions. That’s part of what Dr Kearney describes as the autistic flow, which is when an individual becomes hyperfixated and hyperfocused.

“It’s a state that autistic people can get into when they’re partaking in something that’s a special interest or something that is really fixing their attention,” explains Dr Kearney. “It’s a joyous state and you can be in it for a really long time. It can be self-regulatory but usually when you’re in that state, it can be difficult to pull attention or focus away, and it might be that you’re less likely to pick up on body signals such as pain.”

Bronze was forced to leave the pitch with 15 minutes remaining of extra time in the final. But not because of her fractured tibia. She had also injured the knee in her other leg. We do not yet know the extent of that issue either, but the right knee remained heavily strapped throughout the post-match celebrations.

Was that always part of the risk in playing someone already carrying another injury?

“It’s always speculative,” says Scott, “but it’s very common that, when you come back from one injury, if you’re compensating slightly, you’re always a little bit more predisposed to another one.”

In terms of the tibia fracture itself, Scott says again that England’s medical team would have taken “external expert advice” before Bronze was named in the squad for the tournament: “You don’t take chances if you think you’re going to cause long-term damage.”

But, he adds, “Whenever you play on a body part that’s not fully healed, you’ve always got a chance that it will get worse. Hopefully, we’re not talking about a risk that would end in a career-ending injury, but there’s always potential that it doesn’t heal as expected and she would be out for a longer period of time.”

Bronze removes her self-applied thigh strapping against Sweden (Maryam Majd/Getty Images)

Whose decision is it then, when it comes to situations like this? Does the player have final say on whether they take the associated risks, or does that come down to the doctors looking after the squad or even the manager or head coach?

“There’s no official rule,” says Scott. “Ultimately, the medical team provides expert advice and ensures the player fully understands the nature and potential implications of the injury.  The final decision on whether a player is available to play is made jointly between the player and the medical team – then the manager decides whether to select them or not. The England Team will also have consulted with Bronze’s club, Chelsea, before taking her to Switzerland. If the medical team believe an injury could lead to long-term damage, they will say, ‘We can’t endorse this player to play,’ and withdraw her from any match involvement.  But in this case, they clearly judged that the injury was unlikely to cause lasting harm, so the decision came down to the player’s ability to manage the pain.

“In situations like this, the decision is largely in the player’s hands, provided the medical team is confident the injury won’t worsen.”

It is, surmises Scott, a sign of “incredible resilience” that Bronze was able to make it through almost 600 minutes of tournament football on a fractured tibia.

We now wait to see what, if any, impact it will have on her as she looks to continue her extraordinary career with club and country.

“I’m certainly not finished with England, that’s for sure,” she told the BBC, before nodding when asked if she’d be at the next World Cup in 2027, by which time she’ll be close to turning 36. “If selected,” came the caveat (and assuming England qualify).

Given what we now know about Bronze, non-selection is probably the only way you’re going to keep her away from a major tournament.

Additional reporting: Charlotte Harpur

(Top photo: Harriet Lander/The FA via Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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