Player Interview — Kirsty Linnett

Tony Leighton interviews Birmingham City’s striker, whose reaction to being told she would face her former club Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals was an immediate Oh no. Kirsty Linnett, 20 and formerly of Leicester City, describes two anterior cruciate ligament injuries: the first at seventeen playing for England under-19s against the USA, costing eleven months, the second in her third game back for Arsenal reserves, which hit her harder mentally than physically. Faye White, who had similar problems, advised her on the discipline and focus needed. She recalls Jo Potter’s visa trouble stranding Birmingham at a Russian airport before a 2-0 win, then scoring twice in a 5-2 home leg at St Andrew’s, the first time the women’s team had played on the parent club’s ground.