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Brian Sørensen: Everton’s injury crisis is “extremely tough, especially with the small squad that we have”

Brian Sørensen spoke to the media on Thursday morning ahead of Everton’s clash with Arsenal in the Women’s Super League.

The Toffees have had a difficult start to the 2024/25 season, with neither results nor injuries going in their favour. Everton have lost their opening two WSL matches, failing to score a goal in the process, and they will be looking to change that record this weekend – but their task has been made all the more difficult with the club in the middle of an unfortunate injury crisis.

Alongside the ongoing absences of Melissa Lawley and Karen Holmgaard, two anterior cruciate ligament injuries to Inma Gabarro and Aurora Galli in the space of one week has been a big blow to the Everton squad so early on in the season.

What did Brian Sørensen say?

“It is extremely tough, especially with the small squad that we have. It’s two really good players for us, two high-profile players, so of course it’s been tough, but I think the girls have handled it well. I think the group is quite resilient, especially after last year and all the injuries we had. It’s not ideal, but that’s the way it is in football.”

Many clubs across women’s football have been plagued by ACL injuries and have gotten used to having to adapt, but for Everton, it is a relatively new challenge.

“We hadn’t had an ACL in three years and now we have two in a week, which is never fun. I think there was a review of the whole league and we were top of the list in terms of not having people out. I think we were, as my physio says, ‘due’ to get something, unfortunately.”

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Things go from bad to worse for Sorensen’s Everton when you take into account the size of their squad. Young players, such as the talented Issy Hobson, are already having to make the step up to senior football. The 16-year-old scored her first Everton goal when these two sides met at Walton Hall Park last season, netting a last-minute equaliser to earn the Toffees their first point against Arsenal since 2012.

The reason we get hurt so much is because our squad is so little so if 4, 5 people are out, I don’t think many other clubs will notice that or feel that but when we have, it really starts to impact what we can bring off the bench.”

Arsenal have picked up four points in their two opening WSL fixtures this season, with a draw against Manchester City preceding a 1-0 victory at the King Power Stadium against Leicester City. Despite a rocky start to their campaign, Sorensen is aware of the tricky challenge his side faces at the Emirates Stadium this weekend.

Arsenal are a really well-coached side that are organised and hard to play against. They have extremely good talents in the squad, extremely key players that know the game super well, playing a lot of seasons in this league and together. It is probably if not the toughest, one of the toughest teams we can face and then on top of that it’s at the Emirates Stadium. It is a big task, but as always we prepare to go out there to set the team up to get something out of the game and not set up the team to defend for 90 minutes, that’s not our identity and not what we want to do.”

Everton travel to Arsenal on Sunday, 6th October with kick-off scheduled for 14:00.


Brian Sørensen: Everton's injury crisis is "extremely tough, especially with the small squad that we have" – FromTheSpot