It’s been a long and rocky road back to full recovery for the jewel in Chelsea’s glittering crown, Fran Kirby, who now once again finds herself front and centre of England jubilation after the Lionesses stormed to a brutalising 8-0 rampage over a strong Norway side that not even the most loyal England supporter saw coming.
When speaking at the Lionesses’ media day on a sweltering Tuesday at St George’s Park in June, Kirby, following gentle, sympathetic encouragement from those surrounding reporters gripped to her every word, shared her harrowing experiences of recent years, revealing the battles she has endured, her words vulnerable and sincere.
According to the Reading-born midfielder, or more the medical professionals whose attention she required, her sustained absence was due to an over-exhaustion, both mentally and physically. A diagnosis of this nature renders it challenging to pin a date for Kirby, once labelled ‘mini-Messi’ by her former England coach Mark Sampson, to return to both club and national team football.
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Running parallel and no doubt in correlation to these concerns was the life-threatening agony of suffering from pericarditis, a debilitating condition which affects the heart. This proved to be the case with the 29-year-old only making four appearances across the course of the 2019/20 Women’s Super League campaign.
However, as Kirby herself confirmed and reassured, these health issues are now thankfully a thing of the past and allow both her and her seemingly endless stream of support and admirers to look forward and enjoy the supremely talented footballer that she is, with the Women’s Euro 2022 her stage.
Kirby, who only last year ranked an impressive 10th in the Ballon d’Or shortlist, has had a sensational start to this summer’s international tournament, starting both of England’s Group A matches against Austria and Norway, registering three assists in only 119 minutes of action.
The first assist, in front of a near sold-out, 68,871-strong Old Trafford crowd in the tournament’s curtain-raiser, was a typical display of Kirby’s ingenuity and creativity, the pitch her canvas on which to paint. A bouncing ball fell to the diminutive midfielder, who started the game as an advanced number eight in an otherwise standard 4-3-3 formation.
Kirby raised her head up towards the Manchester night sky as if setting herself to bring the ball down under her consistently immaculate control, instead deceiving her opposite number in the contrasting black of Austria, dropping her right shoulder, feinting, and letting the ball bounce and spin out into space, almost like it was a product of her own planned engineering.
Once in space, Kirby delivered – as she so often does – a gloriously weighted looping pass, finding the path of Beth Mead with incredible precision who, on the half-volley, clipped the ball over the helpless head of her Arsenal Women’s teammate, Manuela Zinsberger, in what was the only goal in a nervy first fixture.
For the first of her two assists in England’s staggering 8-0 triumph over the usual quality of Norway, Kirby found herself in a very similar central position. This time around the pass through, although again finding the feet of Mead, was far more routine for the gifted 58-time-capped midfielder.
Her low whipped pass out towards the right flank, once again weighted to perfection, found Mead in space who darted infield, skipping and dancing through the defence and finishing with aplomb, a drilled diagonal reverse shot too strong for Guro Petterson in the Norwegian net.
For the second assist of the night, Kirby found herself in a more advanced area, successfully peeling away from a small clump of red shirts whilst simultaneously preventing the raising of the flag for offside. England’s number 14 was once again prolific, and Norway were punished for affording Kirby even an inch of space.
She darted towards the goal-line before curling an effort across the face of the goal which the ever-alert Ellen White turned in from close range. This capped off a stunning first half in what proved to be a statement England victory, not out of place in the long list of results that live long in the nation’s rich footballing history.
Whilst the extent and severity of Kirby’s recent health issues remain the subject to sensitive speculation, what is crystal clear is that, if Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses are to experience any form of success this summer, then the Chelsea star’s orchestration of the midfield will be integral.
