Leah Williamson has described the last few weeks as “some of the best of my life” as the 22-year-old gets ready for the start of the World Cup in France.

The Women’s World Cup gets underway in France this week and Leah Williamson is one of a number of Arsenal players hoping to leave their mark on the tournament.

If she is given a chance to replicate her club form for England then she will certainly be able to do that.

Williamson demonstrated a maturity beyond her years in Arsenal’s title-winning season showing herself to be a solid one-on-one defender with an excellent range of passes in her locker and a consistency so often lacking in younger players.

Although Williamson is going to France as England’s third (or possibly even fourth) choice centreback, making the squad for the tournament has been a dream tat least four years in the making.

“At the 2015 World Cup, when I was watching the Lionesses out there, they spoke about wanting to win it, but I’m not sure everybody was totally convinced,” Williamson told The Press and Journal.

“And sitting at home, you didn’t know what was going to happen.

“Ever since then I’ve been like ‘I need to be in that next squad because they are going to win the next one’.

“To get into this World Cup squad, to say ‘this is what I’m going to do’… I’ve been stressing myself out all year, putting a lot of pressure on myself.

“But the fact that sort of everything has worked in my favour so far, I literally can’t complain.

“The last sort of couple of weeks have probably been some of the best of my life – winning the league with Arsenal and then getting called up for this. It is just the hugest honour.”

You can read our comprehensive review of England’s World Cup squad here and our analysis of England’s chances of actually winning the tournament here.