2 months ago
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IN ANNOUNCING his squad for the Reggae Girlz upcoming international friendly against England, head coach, Hubert Busby Jr, confirmed striker Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw is still recovering from the season-ending injury she suffered earlier this year.
Busby was speaking yesterday at a press conference ahead of Jamaica’s meeting against England set for June 29 at the King Power Stadium.
“Bunny is still out,” he confirmed.
“I think the programme for her with Man City is to get back healthy as she had a long-term injury. I think she is on her way back to full strength.”
Shaw last donned the black, green, and gold of Jamaica in a pair of international friendlies against South Africa last year at the Catherine Hall Sports Complex.
She scored twice in a 3-0 win during the first of the two games, before providing an assist in a comeback 3-2 win in the second.
Since then, the striker has been absent from the national team due to an injury-plagued season with her club Manchester City.
In fact, she last featured for City in the Women’s Super League (WSL) in March against West Ham United, before picking up an injury which saw an abrupt end to her season.
Busby explained Man City has been closely monitoring her recovery process and the striker is likely to be absent from the national team for an extended period.
He said the priority for her club, the player, and the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) will be to ensure she returns to the field of play in the best condition.
“As I’ve kind of alluded to in the past, it is very rare that clubs allow players coming back from those sort of long-term injuries for their first time coming back and playing matches with their national team,” he said.
“That is always reserved for their club and with pre-season on the horizon, the most important thing for us, and for Bunny, is to make sure that she’s healthy going into the start of her season in the Women’s Super League.”
He added, “Obviously for us, it is to make sure she is healthy heading into the World Cup Qualifiers.”
Shaw’s absence is only one of several key absences from Busby’s squad to take on England, the coach saying this will allow young players the opportunity to face one of the top-ranked teams in the world.
“It offers opportunities for players to come up. The reality is that you have to extract the positives. At the end of the day, we are missing players,” he said.
The match will be the first-ever meeting between the two nations, and will be used as preparation for the Concacaf W Qualifiers which are scheduled to begin in October.
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