Manchester United midfielder Ella Toone has been called up to the England squad for their forthcoming World Cup play-off games with Greece.
The 27-year-old was originally , which was announced last week but will now join up with the group following a minor injury to Lucy Bronze.
Toone was omitted alongside fellow England regular Chloe Kelly and Wiegman later stated she “expected more” from the pair.
The 27-year-old had headed off to Spain following in the Women’s Super League last weekend but is now joining up with the England squad in Crete ahead of Friday’s first leg.
Wiegman praised Toone for her reaction, telling a press conference: “When I gave her the call, of course that was a hard call, but she took that straight away.
“Of course (she was) very disappointed but the first thing she did was, ‘OK I’m going to get back, how am I going to do that?’
“That answer in the game, also the way she spoke about it, I thought that was really good. And then getting everything ready to go to Spain but go for training there, that really impressed me.
“She was in Spain and she was training really hard, and of course enjoying herself a bit too. But she has had a lot of load under her belt this week so she’s in a good place.”
Explaining why she chose to replace defender Bronze with a midfielder, Wiegman added: “I think we have enough defenders for how we want to play tomorrow, we have enough options in the position where Lucy would play.
“If we look at the balance of the team, then this was the best decision.”
Toone has only completed 90 minutes for Manchester United once this campaign under new boss Eva Olid.
Bronze played for Chelsea in their 3-0 victory over West Ham but sustained an injury which means she will now return to her club for further assessment.
The Lionesses arrived in Crete on Wednesday ahead of their first leg play-off clash with Greece at the Pankritio Stadium. The second leg is at Leicester’s King Power Stadium on Tuesday.
They will be strong favourites against Greece, who finished top of their group in League C and have never qualified for a World Cup or European Championship.
Wiegman said of qualification: “Of course that’s the main goal and then we bring it back to what do we have to do tomorrow.
“We’re fully focused on how do we want to play, what do we expect from Greece – we’ve never played them before, they’ve done well in their campaign, too. We absolutely want to dominate that game tomorrow, and win it of course.”
The England matches are taking place against the backdrop of intense attention on Manchester City, as well as a poor start to the season for Arsenal in the WSL.
“When the players come in, of course you know they can’t just park things, so we have a little chat,” said Wiegman.
“They want to be here. They’re professionals and they really want to perform, so their focus now is really on England.”