A CRUEL BLOW landed today.
Leanne Kiernan is “at the earliest, 10 weeks away” from her injury return, according to Liverpool manager Matt Beard.
The Republic of Ireland striker’s World Cup dream is hanging finely in the balance. Time is against her before the July kick-off in Australia.
A serious ankle injury has ruled the 23-year-old out of action since the opening day of the season in September, robbing her of a highly-anticipated WSL return having lit up the Championship.
The prognosis for Liverpool’s 2021/22 Player of the Year and top goal-scorer was surgery and several months on the sidelines, with a February return eventually forecast. An unfortunate setback, a flare-up in her heel, pushed Kiernan’s comeback date back to the end of March or early April.
And today, Beard confirmed a significant extension to the timeline.
“She is, at the earliest, 10 weeks away, unfortunately,” the Reds boss explained. “She has had a couple of setbacks when she has been back running on the pitch.
“We have had a couple of different scans just to try to get to the bottom of what’s happening. Obviously she had an injection to try to settle the area around the heel and the ankle. I think we are at the point now where the main thing is we just get her back fit and healthy.
I know with the World Cup looming we wanted to get her back before the end of the season and give her minutes. But I think the key thing now with the type of injury she has had, which is a serious one, is we just get her back fit and healthy. If that is before the end of the season then it gives her the opportunity potentially to stake a claim for the World Cup. But if not, then it will be about getting her right for the summer and pre-season.”
On the face of it, inclusion in Vera Pauw’s World Cup squad looks highly unlikely. For most, the dream would be all but over. But Kiernan is no stranger to adversity, between injury and personal problems, and has come out on top in the past.
The42 understands she is back doing light running and in good spirits, determined to be in the mix for Ireland’s first-ever major tournament.
Ten weekends from now is 13/14 May. There’ll be two rounds of WSL action left to play at that point. Fixture details are up in the air, but Liverpool are likely to face Aston Villa on the 21st, before they bring the curtain down on their first season back in the top-flight on the 28th.
A steep mountain lies ahead, and Kiernan knows the need for minutes and match sharpness if she has any hope of being on a plane to Australia this summer.
Chances get slimmer as time ticks by to make the 23-strong squad and travelling reserves. The Cavan star would need to hit the ground running upon her club return, rediscover her goalscoring form and prove her case to Pauw ahead of June training camps in Dublin and send-off friendlies.
In truth, opportunities have been few and far between under the Dutch coach. The 27-cap attacker was a permanent XI fixture under Colin Bell, but has started just twice under Pauw’s watch. Injury struggles have played their part, but the lightning-quick goal-scorer has strangely been afforded little chance to hit the heights of a few short years back.
12 days before sustaining the ankle injury in September, Kiernan appeared to be turning a corner in the green jersey. She impressed as a late substitute against Slovakia, with Pauw hailing a “fantastic” cameo afterwards, adding, “I’ve never seen her so sharp as this week”.
The Ireland boss rued her “unfortunate” setback ahead of last month’s international friendly against China PR and training camp in Marbella, but name-checked her several times and refused to rule her out of her World Cup plans. A further update should be provided tomorrow as she speaks to the media.
It’s no secret that Ireland are lacking a proven goalscorer, and Kiernan is just that. Lively, energetic and hungry, with an end product.
The Girls In Green need that clinical edge in the final third, more goals from open play required rather than depending on set-pieces.
Pauw’s preferred lone forward, Heather Payne, has scored just once in 31 caps. That stat is an unfair reflection on the Florida State University star, who clocks up the kilometres in pressing relentlessly and involving herself in the build-up. More naturally a winger or wing-back, scoring goals is not Payne’s game and the system is excruciating for her.
It would be interesting to see herself and Kiernan in the same team. Pauw, instead, most regularly turns to Kyra Carusa, Abbie Larkin and Amber Barrett. But with two goals in nine caps, one in six and five in 34 — albeit the hero of Hampden — respectively, the team rely mainly on Katie McCabe and Denise O’Sullivan in that department. The pair scored 13 of Ireland’s 27 goals in World Cup qualification.
There’s others in the frame too, with another injury-hit striker, Rianna Jarrett, refusing to give up on the chase, as she told RTÉ.
Parallels can be drawn between both, rotten injury luck hampering their progress and the timing of their recent setbacks particularly sickening.
But as the old adage goes, ‘The comeback is always stronger than the setback.’
Leanne Kiernan has been here before.
Let the race against time begin.
