Matt Beard has confirmed he is set to be without up to seven of his senior players for Liverpool's Women's Super League clash with Arsenal.
The Reds' last competitive fixture ended in a 1-0 defeat at the hands of relegation-threatened Leicester on February 12. The intervening international break has not been kind to Beard's side, with a number of players now facing a race against time to be fit for Wednesday's contest in the capital.
Amongst the confirmed absentees is striker Leanne Kiernan, who has suffered another setback in her rehabilitation from an ankle injury sustained against Chelsea on the opening day of the season. Liverpool's attacking ranks have been further depleted by the loss of January signing Natasha Dowie to a hamstring problem, with Beard describing her absence - expected to last for three to four weeks - as a "massive blow".
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"We’ve had a few issues around injuries but we’re going to give everyone as much time as possible to be fit for the game," Beard said on Tuesday. "As of now, we’ve definitely got five missing and that could potentially be seven but we’ve got another training session today.
"(Leanne) is at the earliest 10 weeks away. She’s had a couple of setbacks when she’s been running on the pitch and she’s had a couple of different scans just to try and get to the bottom of what’s happening.
"She had an injection to try and settle the area around the heel but we’re at a point now where the main thing is getting her back fit and healthy."
Liverpool were beaten 2-0 when Arsenal travelled to Prenton Park for the reverse fixture in October, although the Gunners have yet to win a league game in 2023 and have lacked a clinical edge up front since losing star forwards Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema to season-ending injuries. However, the Gunners showed just how dangerous they can be in their Conti Cup Final victory over Chelsea last weekend, and Beard has admitted his side will need to be at their best if they are to take anything from the contest at Meadow Park.
"Its been a tough period for (Arsenal)," he said. "Apart from the Conti Cup, they’ve not won in three in the league and they were knocked out of the FA Cup as well so they’ve had a bit of an up and down period themselves.
"But they fully deserved to win against Chelsea. We’re just looking forward to playing again and obviously they’ll be on a high from Sunday.
"When you take players like Mead and Miedema out of the team it has an impact but they’re a world class team. We know there’s a gap from the top four right now to the rest of the teams.
"We’ve said all along we want to be as competitive as we can in this division. We’re not short-sighted but they’ve played a lot of games lately and sometimes when you do win a cup final that can maybe have a knock on effect.
"We’ll go there as we always do to set up to win and we’ll do as much as we can to do that."
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