Sonia Bompastor spoke to the media ahead of the Subway League Cup final against Manchester City at Pride Park on Saturday 15th March
Sam Kerr’s Chelsea return seems to be closer than ever as Head Coach Sonia Bompastor has added the Australian to her Champions League squad ahead of a quarter-final tie against Manchester City.
The striker has been out of action since suffering an ACL injury at a warm weather training camp in December 2023, her most recent competitive appearance coming in a 3-1 home UWCL win over BK Hacken the same month.
Bompastor continued: “It was a difficult decision to make because obviously the players will always want to be in the squad, but I spoke to them, I explained why I made that decision.
“The most important thing is now it is clear for everyone.”
Saturday will see the Blues face Manchester City in the League Cup final, a first opportunity for silverware this season and the first of four consecutive matches against City, who on Monday sacked long-time manager Gareth Taylor.
Bompastor will be without world record signing Naomi Girma and new addition Kiera Walsh for the game but was bullish as she previewed the fixture, dismissing the fact that Chelsea had lost League Cup finals in each of the last three campaigns.
“It is a new season. I think we just need to be going into this game with confidence. We are expecting a really hard and difficult game because Man City has a really good squad, good players, top-class players, but we think we are ready.”
Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor had hoped that Girma and Walsh would return after missing the last two games, while Reiten returned from international duty with a back injury.
Speaking ahead of Saturday's final, Bompastor said Girma - who joined Chelsea for a world record-breaking fee of around £900,000 in January - is being evaluated "week by week", while Walsh is "not too far from rejoining the group."
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