Laws, Van De Sanden Out For the Rest of the Season

Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images

Matt Beard gave an injury update ahead of the team’s game against Chelsea.

Three games remain of Liverpool’s second season back in the WSL. The women currently sit comfortably in fifth place. However, of those three games, one is against Manchester United, and the other, Wednesday’s match, is with Chelsea. Though the outcome might not matter much, if the Reds want to prove that they are ready to be in the fight for the European spots next season, a strong showing will be a nice statement to end on.

Unfortunately, manager Matt Beard revealed in his pre-match press conference that the team will be without both goalkeeper Rachael Laws and attacker Shanice van de Sanden for the rest of the season. Additionally, Niamh Lahey will be unavailable on Wednesday, but Beard is more hopeful about the captain maybe returning to duty.

“Lawsy will be out and is probably out for the season now with a finger injury,” he said. “Niamh and Shanice won’t be available but everyone else should be available.

“Shanice is out for the season. She has had an injection in her ankle, so it will be three weeks and we need to make sure that settles down. But we’ve not got long left in the season now, so it’s just about making sure she recovers from that and gets fit and healthy.

“Niamh, we are taking it week by week. She trained with us last week, had a bit of a reaction, so she will probably be back in training I would have thought by the back end of this week, early next week.”

However, in more uplifting team news, Zara Shaw returned to training for the first time in eight months, since her ACL injury in August.

It’s always nice to see a player coming back from a long term injury. It’s a shame that she missed the whole season, but maybe she could sneak in some minutes in the final matches that they have left.