Everton manager Brian Sorensen has recalled teenage defender Issy Hobson from her loan to WSL2 side Nottingham Forest.
And he told journalists on Thursday morning just why he decided to do so.
“We have five people out now,” he said – referring to a cluster of injuries including Kelly Gago’s concussion, Rion Ishikawa’s knee injury, Courtney Brosnan’s MCL problem, and Megan Finnigan’s ongoing rehabilitation.
“She got a League Cup game [at Forest] where she did really well, against Newcastle, but that’s the only game time she got. We could potentially give her some game time now and then also we have her in our environment, so those are the reasons – a bit of the numbers, but also maybe hasn’t got the game time that we would expect.”
Issy Hobson: Happy to be back at Everton
Hobson made her WSL debut at the end of the 2023-24 season as a 16-year-old, scoring a sensational goal to equalise against Arsenal and become the youngest-ever WSL goalscorer. An Everton academy graduate, she spent the first half of 2025 on loan at Sheffield United, and her loan to Forest was agreed last month.
However, she was recalled less than a month into the spell, and is now set to feature in the Everton first-team squad over the coming weeks – a period during which they play Manchester United, Aston Villa, and Manchester City, and ironically also face Forest in the Subway Women’s League Cup.
An observer might think a 17-year-old without too many minutes under her belt this season would be nervous or apprehensive given the potential opportunity to step straight into a WSL first-team squad – but Sorensen told SheKicks.net that he had no qualms whatsoever.
“She’s happy to be back,” he said. “She enjoyed being there [at Forest], she said it was a good set-up they had, professional, but she’s an Evertonian, she’s a Blue, she wants to break through for us.
“It’s a big jump for a young player to break into the best league in the world, and that’s the challenging thing, but I know defensively I can 100 per cent rely on her and trust her. It’s more the decision-making on the ball and the technical aspect that she needs to improve, but she doesn’t improve in that if she doesn’t play, so she’s doing well.
“I’m very sure that she’ll get some game time in the coming weeks.”
Everton travel to the King Power Stadium to play Leicester City on Sunday, 5th October.
