Kim Little is aiming to make her return from injury by April 2018.

Little ruptured her cruciate ligament in May, leaving her needing surgery and ruled out for the best part of a year.

The Scotland midfielder claims there’s no chance of making her country’s 2019 World Cup qualifying matches against Belarus and Albania on 19 and 24 October.

However, the second set on 5 and 10 April are a far more realistic goal.

“There’s no chance of me making them,” Little told BBC Scotland.

“My realistic aim is the second set [versus Switzerland and Poland].”

Little, who’s been capped 121 times for Scotland, is now walking again following surgery on her knee.

“I’m five weeks post-surgery,” she said. “Very slow right now but it’s beginning to progress and it’ll start to move a little bit quicker in terms of what I’m able to do soon.”

Scotland have missed out on going through to the Women’s Euro quarter-finals despite beating Spain 1-0 on Thursday night after a heavy 6-0 defeat to England earlier in the tournament.

“I accepted it quite soon after I did my injury that it wasn’t meant to be,” the 27-year-old said.

“It’s been great to be here and just experience something different and seeing the games from a completely different perspective to what I’m used to.

“I honestly couldn’t be prouder of the girls watching the game live last night. They literally gave everything they could.

“I’m just excited to get back now on the field and to help us qualify for the World Cup in 2019.

“Qualifying was such a huge step for us. Although we didn’t get through to the quarter-finals, which I do think we would’ve been capable of if we’d performed to the best of our ability in the other two games, we did end on a positive.

“We were really close to going through when people, I think, had definitely written us off.

“There’s a lot we need to get better at and work on but we definitely took a step in the right direction.”

Cruciate ligament injuries traditionally take a long time, often the best part of a year, to come back from. Therefore, Little it only being sensible by targeting April next year, 11 months after suffering the injury, as a possible return to international football.

Of course, she could already be on the pitch by then.

Little, who’s current working as a pundit for the Euros, has scored 48 goals during her 10-year career for the Scots, so it’s doubtful that she’ll allow one injury, no matter how huge, stop that from continuing.

We all wish Kim well in her recovery.