ESPN
Mar 26, 2025, 02:39 PM ET
Manchester City boss Nick Cushing has confirmed that forwards Khadija Shaw and Aoba Fujino will miss the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal against Chelsea on Thursday,
The duo missed the first leg of the quarterfinal, which City won 2-0, as well as the league clash against Chelsea on Sunday after picking up muscular injuries in the Subway Cup final.
"We're still working through the team. Obviously you can see after the game on Sunday, the strain that we've had on the squad. But the medical team and the performance team are doing an incredible job working through the team," Cushing told a news conference on Wednesday.
"So the likes of Aoba and Bunny [Shaw] won't make the game, but it wasn't ideal to take off some key players. But we've worked really hard this week to make sure that the squad will be competitive for the game."
City have contended well in their absence in this run of four games in 12 days against Chelsea. They condemned the west London side to their first loss in all competitions this season in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal, and were an injury-time Erin Cuthbert winner away from taking points off them in the league.
In Sunday's clash, Yui Hasegawa and captain Laia Aleixandri went off late with injuries. They both returned to training on Wednesday but Cushing didn't confirm if Hasegawa, who had to leave the Etihad Stadium on crutches, will be back for the quarterfinal second leg.
Despite the multiple injury setbacks, Cushing believes his side's confidence in themselves remains unaffacted.
"I said before when I walked into the dressing room, I looked in the player's eyes and when I walked in the likes of Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood were out of the squad and I still saw belief and a real ambition and a real motivation to win trophies in this group," he said.
"And it's not been ideal over the last two weeks to lose Bunny Shaw and Aoba Fujino and it wasn't ideal on Sunday. [But] I still see the belief.
"Across the three games. I thought we had an incredible threat in the game and I know we will tomorrow night. I've said after the game [2nd leg], I believe we can score in the game and that gives us an incredible chance of progressing. So although we know that we're going to play a really, really tough team in their home, in front of their crowd, I believe we've got a really special group here that actually believes and just wants to go play an attacking team."
The loss in the first leg was Sonia Bompastor's first taste of defeat since taking over at Chelsea at the start of the season. But she believes her side have the quality to overturn the 2-0 deficit at Stamford Bridge.
"We are confident, we are playing a home game. It'll be tough and difficult, we know that, but we are ready to embrace the challenge," she told a news conference on Wednesday.
"I think this is what this squad and this club is about. The players are so competitive, the staff is so competitive, so it's a new challenge. We have never been in that situation in this season before, but we are ready and I just want my players at the end of the game to not have any regrets and this is what we want to go for."
