Plumptre To Return – Bedford’s Pre-Everton Fitness Update

- Everton meet LCFC Women at Walton Hall Park on Saturday evening
- Lydia Bedford speaks in her pre-match presser ahead of the fixture
- Ashleigh Plumptre (illness) has returned to training this week
- The defender missed defeats to Chelsea and Manchester United

City were without the Nigerian international for their last two fixtures at Chelsea and Manchester United due to illness, but she has been back in training this week, ahead of the Foxes tackling the Toffees in a 5:30pm GMT kick-off at Walton Hall Park.

Elsewhere, there’s a clean bill of health around the rest of the squad named for Leicester’s previous encounter, with long-term absentees Hannah Cain, Lachante Paul and Kirstie Levell remaining out. Esther Morgan, meanwhile, returned to parent club Tottenham Hotspur last week for her rehabilitation for an injury picked up during international duty with Wales.

“We’ve no new injuries at this stage,” Bedford told the media during Wednesday’s pre-match press conference. “And we’ve been lucky to have Ash (Ashleigh Plumptre) back in the squad for the weekend. I think that it’s from who was missing last weekend.”

Although defeated last time out, spirits remain high at Belvoir Drive. New Zealand international CJ Bott made her Foxes debut at Leigh Sports Village, adding further competition within the camp.

The manager added: “The mentality has been good this week in training. Lots of opportunities for the girls to reflect, and honest reflections on some of the elements of the game that we know we could have performed better in, which has been really helpful.

“But as we said to them at the end of the game, it poses us with a great opportunity to go away and learn from some of the areas that Man Utd caught us out in, which we believe will be really helpful for us in some of the games that we’ve got coming up over the next month.”