Press conferenceLFC Women team news: Kerr and Bartel available but Reds without injured trio
Sam Kerr and Julia Bartel could make their Liverpool FC Women debuts against Brighton & Hove Albion but the Reds will be without Niamh Fahey, Jasmine Matthews and Sophie Roman Haug on Friday night.
Matt Beard’s side’s opening Barclays Women’s Super League game of 2025 sees them host the Seagulls in a 7pm GMT kick-off at St Helens Stadium.
When asked if midfielders Kerr and Bartel, who arrived on loan deals from Bayern Munich and Chelsea respectively last week, are ready to play, manager Beard said: “Sam is. Julia obviously hasn’t played many minutes over the course of the first half of the season.
“Of course, she had the U20 World Cup, she’s had another game for the U23s with Spain where she played 45 minutes but then I think it was two Chelsea games at 10 or 15 minutes apiece.
“So, she’ll be built up gradually. She’ll be in the squad for sure, but we’ve just got to do a little bit of work to get her up to speed from a football fitness perspective.”
Speaking during Thursday afternoon’s pre-match press conference, Beard added: “Sophie won’t make this one. We’ve got her, Niamh and Jas all out.
“Sophie [had a] little bit of a setback last week with her quad, just because the intensity of training and her rehab has upped. It’s not stopped her training but it just put her back a week.
“So, we anticipate she’ll be back in training with the group next week and hopefully available for selection against Leicester.”
Roman Haug has been out of action since October due to foot and ankle issues, while Beard reported last week that Fahey has a knee injury that will keep her sidelined for around six weeks.
After last weekend’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup tie with West Ham United was postponed, the clash with Brighton represents Liverpool’s first fixture following the winter break and Beard continued: “Everything has been great since we’ve been back in. We’ve had some good meetings [and] set ourselves some targets for the second half of the season.
“The players are champing at the bit and I think this is the first time all year that I’ve had 20 or 21 outfield players available for training and that’s still with Jas, Sophie and Niamh Fahey out. What that does, it creates competition, it raises the standards in training.
“When you do have a squad that’s depleted like before… you mollycoddle them a little bit because you can’t afford any more injuries.
“But we’re in a good place, we’re in a really good place and we’re looking forward to the second half of the season.”