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Millie Bright's tattoos will be seen by millions as she captains England

  /  autty

Millie Bright is fit to captain England's World Cup opener against Haiti today, and the eyes of the planet will be on Sarina Wiegman's side as they seek to build on their Euro 2022 success.

But Bright - a leader at WSL champions Chelsea too - will have more than one eye on the world too - including an eye tattoo, one of the many pieces of body art that adorn the defender.

The 29-year-old is stepping in as interim captain for the Lionesses in the absence of the injured Leah Williamson - and despite missing Chelsea's WSL run-in with a knee injury she picked up in March, she will start the Group D opener in Brisbane.

She is a regular visitor to the tattoo parlour, and added to her collection during her enforced absence from the pitch, spending five hours with A Star Tattoos artist Dan Rossetter getting one particularly personal design completed.

But what do all the different tattoo designs mean? Mail Sport explains all:

Half a tiger

The tiger on her left outside forearm represents strength, an important part of her defensive game.

As Mail Sport's Kathryn Batte said: 'Bright is serious, strong, determined and resilient on the pitch, she will bully attackers, win duels and can be thrown up front if England need a goal.'

That sounds like a tiger; that also sounds like a Lioness.

Eye

Next to the tiger is the eye of her partner, Levi Crew, who is a performance coach. It can be seen clearly near the centre-back's wrist.

Bright told The Sun: 'It’s my partner’s eye and half a tiger, my core strength with me through thick and thin.'

Dreamcatcher

This is one that Millie designed herself, based on the inspiring words of her mum Nicola, who tells her to 'dream big' before every game.

It goes along on the inside of Millie Bright's left forearm.

Owl

Bright was born in Killamarsh, a rural village where there were plenty of owls. She used to see one particular flying creature annually at the horse stables on the outskirts of Sheffield in Yorkshire.

On that tattoo, Bright said: 'An owl, memories from back home – at the stables we always had an owl which came every single year.'

She fell asleep during the penning of the owl tattoo - it was a five-hour job, filmed live by Dan Rossetter at the A Star Tattoos parlous in Chessington in March.

The tattoo artist revealed: 'At the beginning of the session we were having a chat, a catchup from when I'd last seen her - she was telling me about the football and bits and pieces.

'I was just about to start up the conversation again and I thought, "oh, I'm getting no response here". I looked down and she'd fallen asleep.

'I was quite surprised. It was funny. My reaction must have been a picture to start off with.

'She'd wake up and say, "sorry about that, it must be the football"'.

As long as she doesn't sleep on the job in Brisbane, I'm sure fans won't be too disappointed.

Angel with wings

On her arm, you can see a design that reads angel, with a set of wings.

Two halves - with Rachel Daly

It's not just Millie Bright who has tattoos. The Mirror reported that versatile talent Rachel Daly has a design that reads 'at least until the world stops going round', dedicated to her late father Martyn.

The lyrics are from the Leeds United anthem Marching On Together, which was played at his funeral in 2021.

Bright and Aston Villa player Daly have bonded over their love of tattoos, and got matching 'two halves' designs - displayed by a 1/2 fraction - which they showed off on the right side of their right hands during training ahead of the Haiti game.

Former Lioness got a special Euro 2022 tattoo

In December last year, Jill Scott told BBC's The One Show that she got the date of England's Euro 2022 success tattooed on herself.

Scott retired from the game shortly after that victory, and has since appeared as a pundit and TV guest, winning ITV's I'm A Celebrity last year.