Liverpool Women travel to the King Power Stadium this weekend to continue the WSL campaign against Leicester City, and manager Gareth Taylor was able to give an update in his pre-match press conference on the injury status of a few of our Red Women. It’s all mostly good news, especially regarding young midfielder Sofie Lundgaard who has been out since last year with an ACL injury.
“Sofie Lundgaard has come back into contention. Obviously some of the players, like [Sophie] Roman Haug, like Risa [Shimizu],
are limited in what they can do in terms of output on the pitch,” Taylor explained.
“But having them closer to the team, training every day, has been a bright point.”
Veteran goalkeeper Rachael Laws has also been missing for a few weeks after injuring her hand once again in a training session, giving Taylor the issue of having to choose between Faye Kirby and new signing Rafaela Borggrafe to protect the net for Everton. Kirby was praised for her performance despite the loss against Everton last weekend, but Taylor mentioned that Borggrafe is still an option.
“[Rafaela]’s back in with us. There’s nothing further to report but she’s back training with the team so she comes into contention for the weekend,” the manager continued.
“I think obviously with Faye [Kirby], I thought she was very good [against Everton]. That probably sounds a little bit tongue-in-cheek when a goalkeeper has conceded four goals but [with] the nature of those four goals, and on top of that I thought her performance was very, very good.
“So, it’s nice to have Rafa back into contention but Faye at the moment is in the No.1 spot.”
As for Laws herself, she is nearing a return to on pitch activity, but still needs some extra time.
“[There are] just a couple of knocks that we need to check. We’ll take the next 24 hours just to properly assess them,” Taylor said.
“Rachael Laws has had the bits and pieces which were setting her finger removed. She’s back in towards the next level of her recovery. She’s able to do some on-pitch but at the moment she’s still a little bit further away.”
Hearing that Laws had “bits and pieces” holding her finger together was a wild revelation, but it sounds like even with the small knocks here and there, the squad is in a decent place to hopefully get the first win of the season on Sunday.
