Arsenal and England Women are set to remain without the injured Leah Williamson for the foreseeable future.
The influential Lionesses skipper has not played since suffering a foot injury during training ahead of the recent international double-header against the United States and Czech Republic on home soil.
Williamson eventually withdrew from the England squad before those fixtures and returned to Arsenal for further assessment, having been seen walking on crutches with a protective boot.
The 25-year-old had featured in all of Arsenal’s first four matches across all competitions so far this season but manager Jonas Eidevall recently admitted that the issue was likely to keep her sidelined for “several weeks”.
Such a timescale would see Williamson miss a number of key WSL and Champions League contests with her club as well as sitting out European champions England’s next pair of World Cup warm-up friendlies against Japan and Norway in Spain next month, with Eidevall confirming on Friday that she would not be fit for those matches.
Asked for an update on Williamson and fellow injured Arsenal defender Rafaelle Souza ahead of Sunday’s WSL trip to Reading, the Gunners boss said: “No further updates.
“Like we said before, we expect it to be several weeks, unfortunately. But we have to wait for further assessment by the consultants before we can put a more exact time frame on it.
“At the moment, we don’t think any surgery is needed.”
