The opening months of the 2024/25 season were surely among the most difficult of Ella Toone’s career.
“hole in my heart that can never be filled”. Then, in November, the ultra-popular forward had to confront more difficulties, when a calf injury sidelined her for the remainder of 2024.
The 25-year-old has spoken candidly about the struggles she endured during the subsequent period. But within weeks of 2025 beginning – and to the delight of all who love her – Toone returned in magisterial fashion.
In her comeback appearance, in an Adobe Women’s FA Cup fourth-round tie against West Brom, United’s no.7 gave fans an immediate reminder of her myriad qualities, with a magical strike from outside the box.
Clearly football-famished from more than two months out of action, she then downed Manchester City with a hat-trick in what can only be described as a demolition derby.
Feel-good stories that unite everyone in football are so rare, but Toone’s return is one of them, and we suspect even one or two Blues inside the Etihad last Sunday might have raised a smile at the re-emergence of one of women’s football’s most beloved players.
Stand-out moment
Though that hat-trick at the Etihad stole all the headlines – and gave Reds something to cheer in the hours after a disappointing men’s defeat against Brighton – Toone’s wonder-strike versus the Baggies might be our favourite moment.
Most players dream of firing a curler into the top corner from miles out once or twice in their entire careers. But Ella seems to pop up with classic goals every other week. To come on in the 66th minute, in your first game for more than two months, and then casually smash one in from 25 yards within 20 minutes, is God-tier football showmanship.
So, although that derby hat-trick will be remembered in United Women folklore for decades to come – as will the away-end celebrations that greeted Toone’s third – we’re going for the West Brom strike as Ella’s stand-out moment since returning.
Toone’s creativity and eye for a spectacular goal are legendary, with her efforts in the 2022 Euros final and the 2024 Women’s FA Cup final the most famous examples. The long-range beauty against West Brom was just another to add to a very long list.
But the City game revealed her other great, less-discussed USP: work-rate. All three of her goals against the Blues owed something to her persistence and desire. And the team’s. The first would not have been possible had she not followed Elisabeth Terland’s positive forward run, which resulted in the ball falling at her feet. The second derived from hungry pressing from both her and Elisabeth. The third via exactly the same method: Terland and Toone hounding down City goalkeeper Khiara Keating right from the kick-off, at the start of the second half. Terland got the block in, and Toone was rewarded for her own sweat and toil when the ball fell kindly for her to slot into the empty net.
“The visitors used their strong, aggressive press to exploit City’s weakness: the absence of captain Alex Greenwood because of a knee injury, the key to their build-up play,”analysed The Athletic's Charlotte Harpur. “Although United have not dominated possession or the attacking third, their standout statistic this season has been their high pressing intensity.” Toone (along with Terland and Leah Galton) is a vital component to that particular strength.
“The first half of the season was tough for me, and I probably wasn't loving it as much as I should have been,”admitted the Lioness after the memorable win at the Etihad. “I took the time away to make sure that I was physically ready but, more importantly, mentally ready.
“Today just sums it up: I'm so happy. I'm enjoying my football and I know that's what I can do when I'm enjoying it. For me to score against City, as a United fan, it means a lot. I haven't scored against City before so it was nice to get a hat-trick as well! I'm buzzing. Hopefully I can continue performing like this and making sure that I keep playing with that freedom and that positivity and hopefully I can keep helping the team.”