Katie McCabe and Leah Williamson were absent from Arsenal’s squad for their game against Aston Villa on Saturday.
Arsenal made light work of Aston Villa at Villa Park on Saturday as they ensured they will finish no lower than third place in the FA WSL, thus sealing Champions League football, with one eye on Chelsea in second place.
But there was no Katie McCabe or Leah Williamson in the squad.
McCabe’s absence is pretty straightforward. She was missing due to ‘family reasons’.
Williamson, however, had a muscular niggle, the kind you sadly have to expect when a player has spent so much of the season on the sidelines.
At her pre-match press conference, Renee Slegers said, “Leah is managing a niggle, so she didn’t come on to the pitch, and she won’t be travelling to Villa tomorrow either, so that’s the two.”
Williamson has only played in five league matches this season due to injury problems that have affected her knee, calf and hamstring.
The other one Slegers referenced was Steph Catley, who has been dealing with a calf problem in her right leg since the start of April. She is now training on grass but is still not ready to return.
After the match, which Arsenal won 3-0 thanks to goals from Frida Maanum and an Alessia Russo brace, Slegers was asked about the fact she had no defenders on the bench.
“We spoke about it yesterday in the press conference, for us to get the balance right, because it’s also, if you have a very big squad and everyone is available, everyone is fit and then you can only travel with a squad of 20 because there’s no more players allowed on the team sheet- that’s not the situation I would want to be in,” she said.
“You want everyone to be involved and everyone contributing. So it’s about, yes, we need depth in the squad to be able to do this. This was an extreme turnaround with Wednesday night and Saturday morning. But we have depth in the squad to be able to do it but then there’s also a maximum, so we have to find that balance because we want everyone to be contributing.”
It is not clear if both will be back in the squad for Arsenal’s penultimate game of the season when they take on Everton at the Emirates on Wednesday evening.
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