Portsmouth Women rocked by season-ending injury to new signing
Portsmouth Women have suffered a difficult start to their new season in the Women’s Championship.
Jay Sadler had to rebuild the core of his Portsmouth side in the summer, after losing more than a dozen players from last season’s squad.
It hasn’t been an easy initiation for the new players, as they have lost both of their opening league games 2-0.
Now, there is more bad news for them to deal with, as one of Sadler’s new signings is set to miss the rest of the season through injury.
Lucy Johnson set to miss rest of season with ACL injury
Lucy Johnson, the defender signed from Blackburn this summer, has suffered an ACL tear and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
Johnson signed a two-year contract at Fratton Park after being released at the end of last season.
The free transfer was deemed as a real coup, following her performances for Blackburn in the Women’s Championship.
She started the opening-day defeat to Durham, and was one of Portsmouth’s better players. However, it’s now likely to be a while until we see her in a Pompey shirt again.
The injury was announced on social media late on Thursday, allowing fans to offer their condolences.
Jay Sadler won’t panic despite Portsmouth Women’s tough start to season
It hasn’t been an easy start for Pompey Women, but their manager Sadler might have expected that.
Sadler fielded eight debutants in the opening day loss at home to Durham. It’s not easy for a team with so many new faces to gel, but there were patches of the game when the team played well.
The team then had to travel for a tough match against Bristol City, and were in the game for long spells until the Robins scored a second goal late in the second half.
These are far from the easiest fixtures that Pompey Women will face this season, so there’s no reason for anyone to panic yet.
This weekend, they have a fixture against Sheffield United at Fratton Park to look forward to. Despite the loss of Johnson, a positive result in this match would help to lift the team’s spirits.
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