England Women's: Katie Chapman earns World Cup call-up as Mark Sampson targets victory

Chapman, 32, who plays for Chelsea, has 82 caps and has scored eight times for her country

Katie Chapman, right, did not play for England for five years after a dispute with Hope Powell (Getty)

Mark Sampson, the England coach, has named England veteran Katie Chapman in his squad for this summer’s women’s World Cup in Canada next month.

Chapman, 32, who plays for Chelsea, has 82 caps and has scored eight times for her country. However, she fell out with former national coach Hope Powell after asking for time off to look after her two children and did not play for England for five years before returning this year.

The squad includes four players with more than 100 caps – Liverpool’s Fara Williams (139), Alex Scott (123) and Casey Stoney (118), both of Arsenal, and Karen Carney (103) of Birmingham City – and they go into the tournament full off confidence after a qualifying campaign which produced 10 wins out of 10.

Sampson, who unveiled his squad at the Canadian High Commission in London, said: “This is a hugely exciting time for all the staff and players. We’re ranked sixth in the world, we are a good team and we’ve got some exceptional players. The ambition is to go to Canada and win the competition.”

Stoney’s third World Cup will be her last and the 33-year-old former England captain is committed to bowing out on a high.

“I haven’t been able to make as much of a contribution on the pitch as I would have liked but I’m a massive believer you can still make positive contributions off it and that’s what I’ve been trying to do,” she said.

“Because we had such an easy qualifying campaign, it’s quite hard to judge where we’re at, but we’ve got an abundance of talent.”

England captain Steph Houghton has no doubt Stoney is up to the World Cup grade, saying: “Casey’s still very much a vital member of our squad and for me it’s great I can have someone I can bounce off and bounce ideas off and try to learn a lot from.”

Sampson left out several key contributors to the qualifying campaign, including the Liverpool pair of striker Natasha Dowie and defender Gemma Bonner, plus Manchester City left-back Demi Stokes.