After Arsenal Women’s WSL match against Bristol City Women, our girls will go on international break, to represent their countries. National team managers have been dropping their team selections and for the Gooners, there were players whose call-ups this international break we were keen on.
These two players are Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema, who are returning from long-term ACL injuries. Well, are the two set to return to international football? While Miedema links up with the Dutch women’s national team, Beth Mead doesn’t link up with the England women’s national team. This predicament is shocking to many, given that Mead seems to be the one fitter than Miedema, having suffered her ACL injury one month before Miedema.
Last weekend, in our 2-1 win over Aston Villa, Mead made a late appearance for Arsenal in the 88th minute – her first time playing competitive football since picking up an ACL injury on November 19th. Notably, she set up Alessia Russo to score the winning goal and there’s an expectation she will play a role in our clash with Bristol City on Sunday. Even so, Sarina Wiegman feels Beth’s not ready to be back in the Lionesses fold, explaining her omission to SkySports:
“To be honest, she was not close.
“She is in a good place now, [but] she has been out for nine months.
“She had her first minutes, which was very nice to see, and she was really happy; the crowd was very happy, so it gave a lot of energy too.
“But I think she first has to build at her club, show performance at her club, and get that consistency back.
“Then, of course, I hope she performs at that level that we hope she gets back on. Then we have an opportunity to select her and she has the opportunity to compete with the players who are in the squad right now.
“She has had an injury for nine months; she comes out of recovery; she is now building in training sessions, building in playing minutes.”
In Miedema’s case, she’s yet to feature for Arsenal, though she is back in training. Even so, the Dutch head coach, Andries Jonker, trusts she can contribute to his team, hence giving her a call even if she hasn’t played since being injured towards the end of last year, in our Champions League clash with Lyon. Speaking to fcupdate.nl, Jonker explained his decision.
“I spoke with Vivianne and Arsenal and looked at the possibilities. Vivianne trains with the group at Arsenal and she can also train with us with the group,” Jonker said in a press release.
“If that goes well, it is possible that I will use her in the matches against Scotland.”
What do you think about this Gooners? Poor Beth must be devastated..
Michelle Maxwell
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