Renee Slegers has confirmed that Leah Williamson will miss Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Aston Villa with a calf strain picked up in training. Williamson missed the first three months of the season with a knee injury and played her first 90 minutes of the season against Manchester United last weekend.
Williamson is expected to be out for a few weeks but with games against Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City and the FIFA Champions Cup all on the horizon in the next three weeks, the timing is suboptimal to say the least.
Slegers did say that Daphne van Domselaar has a chance to play against her former club on Sunday after being out since November with a quad injury. We spoke on a recent Arsenal Women Arsecast about Anneke Borbe playing with a small issue for some of the first half of the season, which Slegers alluded to when we asked about links in the German press to Hoffenheim goalkeeper Laura Dick, which are true according to our information.
‘We brought Naomi (Williams) back in, which has been really good. She’s come back really well. She said herself this morning, it was only four months away (on loan) but she feels like she’s become a better person and a better goalkeeper. So she’s done really well coming back in for us.
‘I think again Anneke performed well against United, made that incredible save early in the game. Daph is progressing back in. Of course, as a as an athlete, as a footballer, you always stretching your your limits physically.’
‘I think a lot of players and are managing things and that obviously is coming back now. Anneke has been having some things, but she’s been fine to play, definitely. So we have three good goalkeepers in an optimal situation all three are fit and ready to go and we’re close close to that point.’
Meanwhile, Chloe Kelly is back on the pitch but there is no specific timeline on her return, ‘She’s progressing well as well. She’s on the mend. She was on the pitch today and so we’re taking it day by day so we don’t have an exact end date. There’s an optimistic plan and a more conservative plan, so we’ll see how he goes, but she’s making really good progress.’