LEIGH, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 3: Ella Toone of Manchester United in action during the Barclays Women's ... \[+\] Super League match between Manchester United and Arsenal at Leigh Sports Village on November 3, 2024 in Leigh, England. (Photo by Charlotte Tattersall - MUFC/Manchester United via Getty Images)
Manchester United via Getty Images
Manchester United coach Marc Skinner has confirmed that the club's record appearance maker and goalscorer, Ella Toone will be out until the New Year with a calf injury.
Speaking to me at a pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday's game at home to Liverpool, Skinner confirmed that Toone and fellow midfielder Lisa Naalsund will both be out until January. Toone sustained a calf injury in training ahead of the game away to Leicester City last month.
The England star has made more appearances (170) and scored more goals (53) than any other player in the club's short history. Toone also made a club record 96 consecutive league appearances for the club between February 2020 and November 2024. That run was broken by her injury and now Toone is set to miss eight matches for club and country.
Skinner is hopeful that Toone will be fit and available for Manchester United's first game of 2025 away to city rivals Manchester City on January 19, two months after she first sustained her injury. "There's a plan in place. It's a calf injury, when you have a calf injury, you almost feel like it's fixed, and so you think you can come back quickly, but it's always a balance point."
"What she'll do is, she'll train. You know what Tooney's like, she's super-dedicated to the fitness program that she's going to have to face. We're hopeful that she's back and ready for selection for the early game in January, for Man City and so on. Her "return to play" is already scheduled. That's when we're looking to get her back. She's missed it. She loves playing football to her core so you don't have to prompt her a lot. She'll back and ready hopefully for those games."
The loss of Toone's creative quality is a further blow for a team that faced severe criticism from their own supporters for a lack of ambition in certain games. Against the champions Chelsea in their previous game before the international break, Manchester United registered just three shots on goal.
"We can always be braver in every game. When you get 20 shots, you can then try and get 25. I accept that in that game, we came off the last time we played them and it was 0-6 right? So we looked at adapting and evolving what we had to do in the game. We want to be more attacking, of course we do and that's something we continue to look at but I'm sure we are getting back to where we want to be."
"But again, I think there's a balance between all-out attack and then having to balance it with defending. I think we're learning. We are going to make sure that we improve that. Yeah, it's something that we looked at over the last two weeks. We've looked at it, and we continue to put it into our performances."