England 2-0 Ghana (Kendall 6′, Russo 90+5)
ST MARY’S – How quietly and quickly that golden touch has deserted Chloe Kelly. Five months on from catapulting the Lionesses to a second consecutive European Championship, the Arsenal forward just cannot catch a break.
As England ended a historic 2025 with victory over Ghana, a night of celebrating their next generation of young stars was dimmed a little by another Kelly injury as she lasted 23 minutes before being replaced by Beth Mead.
The sight of Kelly leaving the pitch clutching the base of her knee close to her calf is not an unfamiliar one. She has come through horror setbacks before, like the ACL that ruled her out of the Tokyo Olympics. Now she seems plagued by stop-start niggles.
The 27-year-old has started one league match for Arsenal all season, a combined lack of fitness and favour even as Renee Slegers’ side whimper along eight points off the pace in the title race. As it stands, they would not even qualify for the Champions League, months after winning it. And yet Kelly has not been able to have her say, battling Mead, Olivia Smith, Caitlin Foord and Mariona Caldentey for game time.
As a result, her returns have been limited to two assists and one goal for her club, the latter coming in the opening day 4-1 thrashing of London City Lionesses. Tellingly, however many young fans may have turned out to see Kelly that day, it was Smith – the world’s first £1m female footballer – who stole the show.
Sarina Wiegman is just as blessed with attacking options for England – and it has meant Kelly falling down the pecking order again. The Ghana friendly was a moment to change that, had it ended differently.
Asked about the nature of Kelly’s injury by The i Paper, Wiegman said that “something with the knee that didn’t feel right”.
“I haven’t been in the dressing room yet after the game so I don’t know,” she added.
“She could walk but she didn’t feel right.”
England were already leading by then, Lucia Kendall scoring a poetic first international goal on her return to the club where she spent 10 years of her development. Alessia Russo’s penalty clinched it in injury time.
However, what should have been Kelly’s moment to shine was instead overtaken by events. “It’s sad because she had a start and she was playing and then she had to go off,” Wiegman said.
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“So of course you want to be available at all times and you don’t want to have those niggles. But that’s just the way it is now and what she has to sort out is: What is it? And just assess that and try to get back as soon as possible and get consistency, that’s what she wants too but you have to take it as it is.”
This ought to have been a season in which she continued her revival after making her loan move from Manchester City to Arsenal permanent. After voicing her unhappiness under former City manager Gareth Taylor she looked like a different player in north London.
Were it not for her latest setback, it ought to have been the perfect way to round off another historic year for England before the focus turns to 2027 World Cup qualifying.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/t3zxgXv
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