Cushing on Hemp and Greenwood’s fitness progress | OneFootball

Nick Cushing has provided an update on Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood ahead of City’s Barclays Women’s Super League clash with Brighton.

The England duo have both been ruled out with knee injuries, Hemp since November 2024 and Greenwood after a heavy collision the following month against St Polten.

While both are progressing well, Cushing admits Hemp is further away in terms of her recovery from a medial collateral ligament but confirmed that Greenwood is now back on pitch.

Our Interim Head Coach, however, didn’t put a date on either players’ potential return, therefore ruling them out of Sunday’s WSL showdown with Brighton.

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“Lauren’s still with the performance team,” Cushing explained.

“That would indicate she's not imminently returning in the sense of in my plans.

“Alex on the other hand as you’ve probably seen on social media is on pitch, so she's closer.

“For me it’s just about trusting the performance team, they’re doing an incredible job. When those players are ready, you'll start to see them in the photographs and videos.”

Our trip to Broadfield Stadium brings an end to a busy fixture period of eight matches in just four weeks since the February international break.

A lengthy injury list has only added to those demands, with Ayaka Yamashita, Rebecca Knaak, Laura Blindkilde Brown and Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw all ruled out across March.

However, Cushing added that he had no fresh injury concerns ahead of City’s clash with Brighton, as our pursuit of the WSL top three once again comes into focus.

He was also once again quick to praise the tireless efforts of the Club’s medical and performance team who play a crucial role in the squad’s recovery.

Cushing said: “At the moment, we don’t have any [new] injuries.

“I was just saying then that the performance team, we joke that I give them praise but even this morning they're up early with the team at 8 or 9am doing recovery.

“The team’s in a good place. I think we’ll get over this quickly because we know what we have to play for now.

“We have an FA Cup semi-final and we have to chase those two teams above us for the Champions League places. It’s about focus now.”