Everton Women: Kirk expresses ‘horrible’ international break concerns
Goodison News editor Elliott Cuff reporting from Friday’s pre-match press conference…
Everton Women manager Willie Kirk has expressed the difficulty of being a club manager during the international break.
The Blues face Championship outfit Durham in the FA Women’s Cup on Sunday as they look to end the season on a high note.
Dan Turner remains out injured while Kirk accepted that a late fitness test would need to be carried out on several players following the recent international break.
Goodison News attended Kirk’s pre-match press conference, where the manager explained how difficult it can be as a club boss with a number of players out on international duty.
When asked about any fresh injury concerns heading into Sunday’s game, Kirk said: “I think a number of them have come back with things that need to be checked over, there’s maybe four or five coming back with slight knocks.
“Now slight knocks doesn’t mean you miss the game, some of these players have just played with slight knocks for their countries, so they can play with slight knocks for us I’m sure.
“But we’ve just got to balance that off in terms of the risk, because we’ve still got three important league games as well and we want everybody available for them, as much as possible.
“As a club manager you just lose that control for ten days and it’s horrible, and you don’t know how they’re coming back. You’re quickly waiting for GPS reports to come in and physio reports to come in.
“Up until that first training session back as a whole it’s just not a comfortable place to be.”
It isn’t a surprise to hear that manager’s tend to stress over international break injuries.
In a business that is so dominated by results, where injured players could ultimately end up costing a manager his or her job, it must be a stressful period – particularly if you’re struggling in the league anyway.
Fortunately Everton have already met their remit for the season, and though they want to end the season as strong as they possibly can, they’ve already achieved their goal of improving over last season.
Of course, the top three would have been a huge momentum shift for the Toffees, but Kirk has consistently improved Everton since taking charge of the club and he seems to be steering the club in the right direction.
Hopefully Everton will have as many players as possible to choose from against Durham on Sunday, then Kirk can turn his attention to finishing the season in the best way possible.
In other Everton news, Kirk delights in ‘absolutely incredible’ WSL progress.
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