The She Kicks Locker Room: Game Ready with Chloe Kelly (Everton)

Everton’s in-form forward describes a matchday that has become steadily more superstitious as the season has gone well. The night before is a chicken pasta dish and hydration; the morning of a game is poached egg on a plain bagel, with a banana closer to kick-off if she feels she needs the energy. Her boyfriend has cleaned her boots on the morning of every match this season and, she notes, it seems to have worked. She uses music that changes with her mood and visualisation to picture herself scoring – and reports a genuinely strange instance of it in the car on the way to Bristol City, when she simply knew she was going to score a worldie. Nerves peak days before rather than at kick-off. Megan Finnigan, she says, is Everton’s nuttiest.