Cushing on Chelsea availability and Knaak update | OneFootball

Nick Cushing says he has an unchanged squad at his disposal ahead of City's latest clash with Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium, presented by Revolut.

It means, Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw, Aoba Fujino and Rebecca Knaak won't be available alongside longer term absentees Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp for our Barclays Women's Super League showdown on Sunday 23 March.

However, Cushing said the squad were 'in a good place' with no fresh concerns following Wednesday's 2-1 win over Chelsea in our Champions League quarter-final first leg.

Given the tight turnaround, our Interim Head Coach expects to rotate, but confirmed he won't decide on his line-up until after our final training session on Saturday.

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"The team is in a good place. We’ll have the same squad as midweek," he said.

"Bunny [Shaw] and Aoba [Fujino] won’t be ready for the game. They will remain with the medical team.

"Everybody came through the game fine. It’s a tight turnaround from Wednesday’s game so we will look if we rotate but at the moment it’s really positive.

"I probably will look to rotate a little bit and bring in some fresh legs because I was really pleased with the intensity and way we applied ourselves.

"Everyone is desperate to play. That’s a huge positive but it gives me problems."

WATCH: Match highlights: City 2-0 Chelsea

Cushing also provided an update on the condition of Knaak, who's been unavailable with a hamstring injury since the international break.

Our flurry of games against Chelsea have likely come too soon for the German international to make her return, but our Interim Head Coach says she's been making positive progress.

He added: "I don’t know how imminent her return is but the medical team say she is progressing well.

"They are really pleased with her progress.

"In conversations with her I see a player that is really hungry and after Chelsea I could see her happiness for the team but the hunger to play in those games."

Man City App Coverage

As ever, the Official Man City App will provide comprehensive coverage of our WSL clash with Chelsea.

Our Matchday Centre will be providing you with all the pre-match build-up, statistics and analysis from 13:00 (UK).

There will also be a special Matchday Live show for our WSL clash with Chelsea, featuring special guests Toni Duggan and Jen Beattie, getting under way around one hour before kick-off.

HOW TO FOLLOW CITY v CHELSEA ON THE APP

During the game, you can tune into live audio commentary from Nick Walsh and Karen Bardsley at the Etihad Stadium, with live text updates also available.

Make sure you have push notifications turned on to receive team news, key moments, goal updates and red cards via our app.

Following the final whistle, a detailed match report, plus reactions from both Interim Head Coach Nick Cushing and the players will also be available to view.

Highlights from the game, as well as a full-match replay will be available on CITY+ at 12:00 (UK) on Monday.