Manchester United Women boss Marc Skinner has announced that Ella Toone is back in training after a two-month injury layoff.
The England international has been a talisman for United over the years and capped an impressive year last season with a wonderful long-range strike in the FA Cup final versus Tottenham Hotspur Women.
This year has been one of change for the women’s team with long-time servants Mary Earps and Katie Zelem leaving the club and it was expected Toone would step up in their absence.
It has been a trying year for the 25-year-old though, as she suffered a calf injury in November and has been sidelined for two months.
She has only played six matches in the campaign and has unusually failed to score or assist in any of those games, as United have had to make do with her absence.
Fortunately, she is on the cusp of a return to action according to comments her manager made in the pre-match press conference before the women’s team begin their defence of their FA Cup title against West Bromwich Albion Women on Saturday.
Skinner stated, “Ella Toone is back and hopefully in the squad, she will hopefully play some part against West Brom.”
“We are looking at that obviously with the games coming up as well. Probably (playing) around half an hour, I think is probably sensible. The competitive chaos nature of a game that you can’t control a little bit more fatigues mentally.”
The manager also revealed that she returned to training on Thursday and looked “sharp” while doing some tactical work with the rest of the squad.
Whilst not confirming whether she will definitely play a part against West Brom, Skinner claimed, “So hopefully we can get her into the game and introduce her after the long time she’s had out.”
The team have coped admirably without Toone as they have qualified for the quarter finals of the League Cup. They are also well in contention to qualify for the Champions League next season, as they currently sit one place outside the top three but only on goal difference.
Toone’s return is certainly exciting news though as United face some mouth-watering fixtures over the coming weeks with league and cup fixtures versus Manchester City and a match against fifth-placed Brighton and Hove Albion to come in the month of January.
They will take on West Brom at 17:15 UK time tomorrow evening.
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
