Glasgow City head coach Leanne Ross says that Nicole Kozlova will be “a huge loss” for the rest of the season.
Kozlova picked up an ACL injury in Ukraine’s match against England last week and will miss the run-in as City look to seal the league title.
“These things can happen in the blink of an eye,” Ross told SheKicks.net on Thursday. “We’re all disappointed for Nick. We’re there to support her.
“She’ll be there to support her teammates as well and to give as much support and information as she can to make them ready for what’s to come in the split because she knows what it’s like after experiencing it last season.”
She explained: “She will be a huge loss. The biggest thing is the disappointment for her personally. She was having a fantastic season, scoring a lot of goals, a lot of personal accolades for her, and she’s been a huge player for us up to this point in the season.
“But we’ll rally round her, we’ll make sure that she gets the best support possible, and she still has a massive part to play in what we can go and achieve this season. She’ll not be on the pitch, but in terms of leadership and what she can add to the group, she’s still got a massive part to play.”
Leanne Ross: Glasgow City new recruits have settled in well
That includes sharing her experience with some of the younger players stepping into the squad – including the new signings who have been recruited to the club over the last six weeks.
“We’ve done a lot of work in terms of our recruitment,” said Ross. “That’s ongoing all the time, all the way through the year. We work windows ahead. We knew where we were going to have to strengthen, and I think we’ve done that really well in terms of the young players that we’ve brought in, the environments that they are from is adding to our environment as well.
“So they’ve all settled in really well and they’re all now competing within that squad. So it’s a difficult decision come matchday for us to decide who’s going to play in that starting 11, but also who’s actually going to be in the squad. So there’ll be a few disappointed players in each game, but we had to put ourselves in that position where we had the strongest squad as possible, and I think we’ve done that.”
Glasgow City resume their campaign against Partick Thistle on Sunday.
