England players sent strong Lauren James message ahead of Colombia Women's World Cup clash
Lauren James has been in the spotlight since being sent off during England win over Nigeria
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England star Beth England has made it clear players and staff members must rally round Lauren James and support the 21-year-old following her red card against Nigeria on Monday.
The forward received her marching orders after appearing to stamp on Michelle Alozie during the final minutes of normal time.
James is now facing an anxious wait to find out whether her tournament is over.
And England, speaking at a press conference ahead of that game, has insisted players and staff members must support the youngster following her moment of madness.
England star Lauren James will be absent for Colombia Women's World Cup clash
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“I can imagine its a difficult position to be in," she said.
"But whether they did it on the same day or not it's not going to affect her.
"We need to be there for her as a team and as coaching staff but ultimately whatever decision they make we have to unfortunately accept that and get on with it.
"There's bigger things than just focusing on one player now.
“Mentality and resilience are part and parcel of the game.
"A lot is the physical aspect, we've just had to play 120 minutes which isn't easy against such tough opposition.”
England also says the Lionesses are feeling positive ahead of the match against Colombia.
She continued: “We had a good days rest yesterday so we could get back on the training pitch and we just need to focus on Saturday.
“We can talk about resilience and mentality but that's tournament football.
"We have experienced players that are used to that but we have younger players still getting used to it and it's a fine balance.
"The girls are in good spirits and couldn't be more excited to get going on Saturday.”
The 29-year-old wants her side to keep pushing, too, as the Lionesses look to bring the trophy home.
"It's an amazing feeling to be going into another stage of this tournament," she continued.
"We want to keep pushing, the fact we've come past that hurdle [Nigeria] is a big thing and now we face another tough challenge.
"It's going to be exciting and we are looking forward to playing in a quarter-final."
Against Nigeria last time out, England were able to overcome the African side via a dreaded penalty shootout.
And the striker admits she was nervous - though believes facing the media is even more daunting.
"I'm more nervous now in front of you lot [the media] than I was taking a penalty," he said.
"There's a lot of preparation that goes in behind the scenes but for myself I had a brief moment of 'is this really happening? Am I really going to do this?' But the walk up was fine - it was weirdly quite silent.
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"I thought I would have heard so much noise but fortunately it went in."
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