Striker Khadija Shaw could miss both legs of Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea because of a muscle injury, revealed interim boss Nick Cushing on Tuesday.
Shaw is definitely ruled out of Wednesday’s first leg at the Joie Stadium with Cushing also suggesting the forward is a doubt for the return match in London next week.
City’s top scorer was injured in the defeat to Chelsea in the Women’s League Cup final on Saturday, while Japan international Aoba Fujino, who started and scored in that game, will also be missing.
“Two significant players,” Cushing said. “But for us, these moments give opportunities to other players.
Fujino equalised against Chelsea in the League Cup at the weekend
“Both of them are muscle injuries … the problem with these types of injuries, it’s going to take a few days to even diagnose how long the problem is. I think they are significant.”
Pushed on the chances of either player being available for the second leg on March 27, Cushing added: “When you have muscle injuries and you can’t diagnose the timeframe, it’s not going to be one you can turn around quickly.”
The League Cup final was the first of four games between Chelsea and City in a remarkable 12-day span. As well as the two-leg Champions League quarter-final, they meet in a WSL encounter on Sunday.
Kelly absence starts to be felt
Man City forward Chloe Kelly is on loan at Arsenal
Sky Sports’ Anton Toloui:
This is the reason Manchester City were reluctant to see Chloe Kelly leave in January.
The England winger would be the like-for-like replacement for the injured Fujino and her creativity, experience and goal threat would ease the burden on the other forwards in Shaw’s absence.
City are still blessed with talent, with Jess Park and Kerolin Nicoli available to step up from the bench and Vivianne Miedema potentially becoming the starting No 9.
But Cushing, who described Wednesday’s game as “bigger” than Saturday’s Subway Cup final, knows he needs as many attacking options as possible to break down arguably the best defence in Europe.
Any team in the world would miss a player as talented as Shaw. The effectiveness of Cushing’s plan B will be instrumental to Man City’s success in this intriguing Champions League showdown.
