Brighton interim head coach Chris Roberts gives update on Fran Kirby fitness | OneFootball

Brighton & Hove Albion v Aston Villa – Barclays Women’s Super League

CRAWLEY, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 05: Fran Kirby of Brighton & Hove Albion scores her team’s third goal from the penalty spot during the Barclays Women’s Super League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa at Broadfield Stadium on October 05, 2024 in Crawley, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Brighton and Hove Albion interim head coach Chris Roberts said on Thursday that talismanic forward Fran Kirby is on her way to full fitness and making a return.

He reported that she was likely to miss the next two league games – but he was hoping she would be in contention for the fifth round of the Women’s FA Cup, which takes place on Sunday, 22nd February.

“I think Fran, she’s going to miss this weekend and is likely going to miss the Arsenal game as well,” he told a press conference. “Hopefully have her back for the FA Cup game, that’s certainly the target we’re working towards.

“Of course we lost Michelle [Agyemang] earlier in the season. We also have the Asia Cup and the AFCON coming as well so we’ll have a few more go out in February, March as well. We will maybe be slightly lighter than we’d like but we also have a lot of quality and depth through other parts of the squad that we’ll need to utilise.”

Chris Roberts: We need to turn chances into goals

Reflecting on last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at home to London City Lionesses, Roberts said that he thought his players were “exceptional” for the majority of the game, apart from two moments where they conceded on the counter.

“We had seven extremely good chances – on any other day we’d probably take four or five of them, and it is really important we build on that performance and we start turning those chances into goals and put teams away quicker so that we can get the three points, because certainly we deserved it at the weekend, but as we know in football, you don’t always get what you deserve.”

Roberts also mentioned that he is in regular contact with head coach Dario Vidosic, who lost his father Rado this week, and added that there is no definite time frame as yet for his return to his role.

Brighton travel to West Ham United this weekend.