Injury crisis from internationals ring true for our women!
The international period is a time feared by managers all over. And as our women went off to their September summer camps with their national side, the fears of key players getting injured turned into reality for Joe Montemurro.
It was all going so well in the Netherland’s European Championship qualifier against Russia where Jill Roord had netted the winner in a 1-0 win to help her side maintain their impressive start to the campaign giving them seven wins out of seven and helping them to sit pretty on the top of group A with 21 points. But with just 15 minutes of the tie to go Roord was forced to come off after she sustained what was seen to be a minor knee injury. And back to North London it was to begin her recovery.
For any player this would be a huge disappointment of course but where Jill was concerned, rather than dwelling on the big disappointment Jill used her time on the side-lines in a positive way and instead focused on getting herself back into the best shape possible.
Speaking to the Arsenal website she reiterated that it was something she was used to doing as she did as much at the start of lockdown:
“I was working a lot on my fitness over the summer. That’s the bit that I could really develop as well, my physicality. I had the time during the coronavirus [break], so I’ve been doing a lot. If we’re going to back to training, then I wanted to be really fit. It worked out really well. I was just focused on my fitness, and physically with the running. Also mentally, I had time to switch off and spend some time with family. That did me really good as well. I just felt really fresh going into the new season.”
So as Jill uses that trait for her time out injured now, I am sure she will be back in much better shape, fit and firing in front of goal, in a better way than before, if that is even possible given her back to back hat-tricks at the start of the season.
Whatever way Jill does return I am sure it will be in the best shape possible. So, teams should be scared. Gooners?
Shenel Osman
If she can stay fit, then I believe we will win the league.