England boss Sarina Wiegman is “positive” Fran Kirby will bounce back from her latest fitness issue and brushed aside suggestions that the midfielder’s lack of playing time is becoming a concern.
Kirby pulled up in the warm-up before the Lionesses’ 7-2 friendly victory over Austria on Friday night, and on Sunday the Football Association confirmed she had withdrawn from the squad for further assessment on a “minor knee injury.”
It is yet another blow for Kirby, who missed out on the Lionesses’ World Cup campaign last summer after undergoing knee surgery for a long-standing issue, and in October pulled on an England shirt for the first time in over a year.
Asked about Kirby’s injury history and limited starts for her club, Wiegman said: “I don’t think at Chelsea it always has been the reason that she’s injured or not available or not starting.
“There’s also technical, tactical decisions. She was available for us, she would start and she wasn’t available to, which is a disappointment, and moving forward we will see how things develop. I hope she’ll be on the pitch quick, and I’m positive about that.”
Kirby has returned to Chelsea, with what Wiegman says was “some irritation on her knee. It’s a minor injury, but we didn’t want to take any risk, so she’s being assessed at the club and we don’t expect it to be a bad injury.”
The 30-year-old started every game of England’s Euro 2022-winning run, scoring twice and picking up three assists, but in the months prior to selection had suffered from a debilitating fatigue-related illness, later admitting in a book by Millie Farrow, released last year, that she would be forced to rethink her playing career if it happened again.
She told the former Chelsea striker: “I think the competitiveness in me is ‘try one more time’ but I will get to the stage where I think ‘I can’t keep doing this.”
Kirby also sat out a long spell during the 2019-20 season with pericarditis, a heart condition, and during last February’s Conti Cup final re-aggravated a knee issue that had plagued her since she was a pre-teen.
Though she had hoped to avoid surgery, doctors ultimately determined it would be the best way forward to treat what they diagnosed as tripartite patella, in which two bone fragments were attached by tissue, but not joined to her patella bone.
After missing England’s World Cup campaign last summer, which saw them finish runners-up, Kirby made an emotional return to international action in October, coming on as a substitute in the Lionesses’ 1-0 Nations League victory over Belgium.
She has appeared in 14 Women’s Super League matches and five Champions League contests this season, scoring three goals and picking up two assists across all competitions, though her starts have been limited.
It does not help Kirby’s case that competition for playing time at both club and country is increasingly cut-throat.
On Friday, 20-year-old Grace Clinton emphatically introduced herself to the senior squad with a goal on her debut in the first of England’s two international friendlies in Spain, with Italy up next on Tuesday night.
Midfielder Keira Walsh welcomes the challenge, saying: “That’s the hope, isn’t it, that they do come in and take our place? Four of the under-23s trained with us yesterday, and the idea is that they’ll be coming in and taking our shirts off us.
“We don’t want to be predictable in the way we play, we don’t want to be predictable in who’s playing. I think that’s something that’s really special about this England team. We have such good squad depth that anybody can play at any time.”
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Al-Riyadh 0-1 Al-Nassr: Mane hands visitors bragging rights
Sadio Mane's first-half strike ensured Al-Nassr maintained their unbeaten start to the Saudi Pro League season with a 1-0 win over rivals Al-Riyadh.
He smartly finished from close range in the 41st minute, with his goal enough to seal the three points and move Al-Nassr up to third in the table.
Al-Nassr's threat grew as the first half went on, with Milan Borjan making a fine double stop to deny Ronaldo and Talisca once again before Mohamed Simakan struck the post on the rebound.
Mane would eventually break the deadlock in the 41st minute though, darting in front of his marker to meet Abdulrahman Ghareeb's low cross and rifle it into the roof of the net.
The Senegalese striker arguably should have doubled his tally before the break, but was denied by Borjan's stretching save when one-on-one with the Canadian.
Talisca should have wrapped up the points in the final three minutes, but he blazed over an empty net from close range, before having a late goal disallowed for offside.
Data Debrief: Derby delight for Al-Nassr
After drawing their last two matches, this win was a welcome result for Al-Nassr as they racked up their sixth victory of the season to close the gap at the top of the table to six points.
It is just the second time Al-Nassr have avoided defeat in their first 10 matches of a Pro League campaign, last doing so in 2013-14, when they won the league title.
They are now unbeaten in their last seven Pro League derbies (W4 D3), their longest such streak since a run of nine between 2018 and 2020.
This is the first time in eight such games that they have kept a clean sheet though, and limited their opponents to just five shots throughout.
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