Everton boss admits 'big blow' as injury crisis worsens

Everton boss admits 'big blow' as injury crisis worsens

Everton have suffered two ACL injuries in the space of two games after having endured an injury-hit 2023/24 season

Inma Gabarro was stretchered off against Manchester United

Everton boss Brian Sorensen admits it is a "big blow" for summer signing Inma Gabarro to have ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) just eight days after fellow midfielder Aurora Galli suffered the same injury.

Gabarro, who joined the club from Sevilla in July, was stretchered off during Sunday's 1-0 defeat to Manchester United after an innocuous-looking coming together with Leah Galton. The Spain international has been one of the Blues' brightest sparks so far this term but she is now unlikely to feature again this season.

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Her ACL rupture came little more than a week after Galli was hurt during Everton's 4-0 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion and continues the club's rotten luck with injuries, with the Blues having also been hit hard in that department last season. "It is extremely tough, especially with the small squad that we have," Sorensen said on Friday.

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"It’s two really good players for us, two high-profile players, so of course it’s been tough, but I think the girls have handled it well. I think the group is quite resilient, especially after last year and all the injuries we had. It’s not ideal, but that’s the way it is in football. We hadn’t had an ACL in three years and now we have two in a week, which is never fun."

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He added: “The reason we get hurt so much is because our squad is so little so if four, five people are out, I don’t think many other clubs will notice that or feel that but when we have, it really starts to impact what we can bring off the bench.

"To see her go down in what I call a freak injury where she gets the push and lands wrong," Sorensen said. "That's nothing to do with fatigue, it's 10 minutes into the game. It's just really bad luck."

The amount of ACL injuries in the women's game have garnered plenty of attention over the past few seasons, with a three-year project researching ACL prevention having been launched in the Women's Super League (WSL) in April. The Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), Fifpro, Nike and Leeds Beckett University have joined forces to fund the research, which will focus on environmental factors that increase the risk of ACL injuries in female footballers.

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"We take everything into consideration and make sure, especially with this small squad, we need people healthy. That's the aim. A big blow but nothing we can do about it," he said. "We have to look forward to the squad we have and keep them as healthy as we can because we can't afford losing more."

Everton will hope they can bounce back from a difficult few weeks when they travel to the Emirates on Sunday to take on title-hopefuls Arsenal. The Blues are currently second from bottom in the table however Sorensen is confident the togetherness in the group can help his team turn their fortunes around.

"The group is quite resilient after all the injuries we had. Its not ideal but that's the way it is in football," he said. "We can't start not going 100% into everything we do, whether it's a tackle or a duel. We have to do 100, otherwise what's the point. We have to have that mentality as a team, and the girls agree."

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