Chelsea defender Mjelde confirms season end due to knee injury

Chelsea defender Maren Mjelde has confirmed that her season is over after sustaining a knee injury in yesterday’s 6-0 FA Women’s Continental League Cup final victory over Bristol City at Vicarage Road.

The 31-year-old Norwegian international was left screaming in pain after coming out badly from an honest challenge for the ball with Bristol City’s Aimee Palmer and she left the field on a stretcher.

Mjelde was taken to hospital for treatment following the incident before returning home last night. The player has today taken to her personal Twitter account to provide fans with an update on her injury. Mjelde has confirmed that her season is over and that she will need an operation, however, the injury is not thought to be as bad as first feared and she has already set her sights on a return in pre-season.

The comeback begins 🦾 pic.twitter.com/i0gZ7No8rz

— Maren Mjelde (@MarenMjelde) March 15, 2021

Chelsea cruised to victory over huge underdogs Bristol City in Watford with Australian international Sam Kerr netting a hat-trick while Fran Kirby scored two goals and created four more. Guro Reiten was also on target for Emma Hayes’ side as they retained the FA Women’s Continental League Cup into a second year.

Mjelde left the field in the 81st minute following a lengthy period being assisted by the Chelsea medical team on the turf. The Blues went on to play out the final minutes with 10 players with manager Hayes having already used all of her permitted substitutions. Mjelde will now miss the end of season run-in in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League and the final rounds of this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League. The defender will also be absent for the first two rounds of Chelsea’s Vitality Women’s FA Cup campaign, although she could be fit for the latter rounds of the competition should The Blues progress.

Daniel Pentland

I am the editor and owner of FAWSL Full-Time magazine. I have been reporting on men’s and women’s football at various levels since summer 2015. Some of the events which I have reported from include the 2017 UEFA Women’s European Championship, 2018 FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup, FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, SSE Women’s FA Cup final, Emirates FA Cup final, UEFA Europa League, English Football League and various international matches.

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