Ella Toone could be in contention for Manchester United when they begin their Women’s FA Cup defence against West Brom on Saturday.
The England midfielder has been sidelined since November after picking up a calf injury during training, but boss Marc Skinner hinted that she could feature this weekend.
Skinner provided an injury update, saying: “Lisa (Naalsund) is still out, Lisa will probably be a few weeks before she’s back on the grass with us and training with the team.
“Ella Toone is back and hopefully in the squad, she’ll hopefully be able to play some part against West Brom. We are looking at that.
“Apart from that everyone else is in contention.”
When asked how many minutes Toone could manage, Skinner replied: “Around half-an-hour is probably sensible. It’s just the competitive kind of chaos nature of a game you can’t control a little bit more.
“She trained yesterday with the team, working on shape and stuff and was really sharp. Hopefully we can get her into the game and introduce her after the long time she’s had out.”
United are the current holders of the FA Cup after earning a thumping 4-0 win over Tottenham in the 2024 final to claim their first major trophy.
They start their defence with a fourth-round clash against third-tier West Brom – who play in the National League North Premier Division – and Skinner insisted United will bring the “best” of their game.
He said: “It’s the start of a new part of the season, the energy’s big and nobody’s played games yet so it’s going to be a little bit of post-rustiness.
“We’re the holders of this cup and we want to continue that. We know it’s going to be a difficult task again to get to where we want, which is finals and win them again.
“We start at West Brom, it’s going to be a good game. It’s the joys and trials and tribulations of an FA Cup, I’m sure they’ll enjoy that, but the biggest respect we can give to them is by playing the best of our game.”
Brighton are set to meet Championship outfit Durham in Saturday’s other FA Cup game and Seagulls boss Dario Vidosic is targeting success in the competition.
Focus on the @AdobeWFACup fourth round… 🔜 pic.twitter.com/uLHoKBauB4
— Brighton & Hove Albion Women (@BHAFCWomen) January 7, 2025
He said: “I would love to win it, to be fair. That’s always the aim, that’ll never change.
“We respect every opponent, every competition, every game – if it’s FA Cup or a friendly or a WSL game – it all carries the same weight to myself.
“We know it’s the first game of an FA Cup, it’s always the magic of the cup where there’s upsets, so we know we have to be prepared.
“We have to be ready, we know it’s a tough challenge to get us started after the break, but it’s one we’re looking forward to and hopefully get our cup campaign off to a positive start.”
