Skinner: Touch wood, we've come through

Sixteen Reds have been involved across the world over the past fortnight, with the games piling up after a busy start to the club season.

Thankfully, the boss believes that nobody has returned with any major issues, ahead of Sunday’s Barclays WSL trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.

“I’ve not had any reports of any injuries from the camps, so, hopefully, everybody has come back fit and healthy,” said Skinner.

“We will assess that this morning [Friday], as they come back in. The way our players have been, they’ve been all around the world, so getting them back on the same day is really important to us.

“There might be a couple of sore bodies, but, touch wood, we’ve come through a physically demanding window for our players.”

Jess Park was not involved for England, when they took on Brazil and Australia, after she was withdrawn from the squad due to suffering a delayed concussion during our 4-1 victory over Everton.

Park, who claimed United and WSL Player of the Month prizes in October, has now recovered and should be clear to feature at Broadfield Stadium for the midday kick-off.

“Jess trained the other day, so Jess is perfectly fine now,” Marc added. “If you saw the hit [at Everton] – she made a fantastic block and she just had some delayed onset [concussion] the day after.

“We followed all the protocols, the processes and testing and she had quite a lot of rest.

“She trained fully yesterday, she’ll train fully today and tomorrow and she’ll be ready for Sunday, but I must stress that if she wasn’t at any point okay, she would not be put into the teams.

“But she’s trained fully so she’s ready to go.”

Simi Awujo is also on the verge of playing a greater role, after an injury-disrupted start to 2025/26.

The midfielder has been named as a substitute in each of our last four games, but wasn’t part of the most recent Canada squad.

“Simi was going to start the season for us, and as we go into the Champions League qualifiers, she does her MCL [medialcollateral ligament]. So that was a six-week block, to which she had a little bit of rotation, so she kind of managed it.

“She’s only been available really since the Chelsea game, but the Chelsea game she’d only come back the day before that. She’s had very little time to make that, but we’ve trained her very hard in this window.

“I absolutely understand why [Canada manager] Casey [Stoney] didn’t pick her, because Casey wants to pick players that are playing, but it was just a circumstantial one with Simi.

“I hope now in this next block and the one beyond, we see Simi get right back up to those levels. Whether she starts or not, we should be able to see a little bit more of her in this next block.”

Brighton will be without England international star Michelle Agyemang on Sunday. The on-loan Arsenal striker, who scored memorable goals in the Euro 2025 quarter-finals and semi-finals, has been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with a knee injury.

“I’m an Englishman and proud to be, so I just want to wish her all the best,” said Skinner. “She’s an extremely talented player so it’s a sad situation for club and country.

“What I’m hearing about her as a character, it will build and make her stronger, no doubt. I wish her all the best on her recovery and I hope she’ll be back soon.”