ENGLAND defender Casey Stoney will miss tonight’s European Championship opener against Scotland.

The Basildon born centre-back, who grew up in Wickford, was pushing for a place in Mark Sampson’s side for their opening clash in the Netherlands.

However, the former Runwell Primary School pupil will now be sitting out with a hamstring problem.

Stoney is expected to recover for Sunday’s game with Spain and is confident England can reach the latter stages of the competition.

“We’ve got a real belief within our camp that we can do very well,” said Stoney.

“We won bronze in the World Cup and we want to go better than that, we want to win this tournament but it’s important we start well.”