Brighton & Hove Albion manager Hope Powell has confirmed that left-back Fliss Gibbons will again be missing when her side travel to Twerton Park to face Bristol City in their latest Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture tomorrow.
The 26-year-old Maidstone-born defender is yet to feature for Albion in 2021 with the player having been forced into a period of self-isolation.
When speaking in Brighton & Hove Albion’s pre-match press conference yesterday in which FA Women’s Super League Full-Time were present, Powell indicated that Gibbons is recovering well but will not be available for selection this weekend.
“Fliss is out” said Powell when speaking ahead of her side’s trip to Bath. “She is still in isolation.
“She is back tomorrow but she has a seven-day period of easing back in.”
With several players having been ruled out of action either due to COVID-19 issues or injuries in recent weeks, Powell has really had to juggle her resources with Megan Connelly and Kayleigh Green being forced to play in unfamiliar full-back positions against Manchester City last weekend. Powell is hoping to see the club’s list of absentees reduce ahead their latest fixture against Bristol City this weekend.
She added “We have a few back which is good but we’re not to full strength yet.
“We are still struggling a little bit but we are better than we were last week.
“Some players have had a 14-day isolation then there’s the seven-day period and then you have got to take into account not spiking them too early and risk further injury.
“It is what it is, we are just getting on with it.”
A depleted Brighton & Hove Albion side suffered a 7-1 home loss to Manchester City last weekend but Powell is not making any excuses for that heavy defeat.
“We have basically got to get on with it, we can’t make excuses” said Powell.
“It’d be easy to blame being light on numbers but we have got to move away from that.
“We need to learn the lessons, take ownership of ourselves and generally look ahead and try to be positive.
“I hate to lose but losing is part of it. If you are going lose, lose well but I don’t think we did that which was the most disappointing thing.”
Brighton & Hove Albion’s latest Barclays FA Women’s Super League fixture against Bristol City at Twerton Park is scheduled to kick-off at 2pm tomorrow afternoon. The game will be made available for fans to stream live on the FA Player.
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