Leicester City’s Siemsen reflects on return to Australia side | OneFootball

Leicester City forward Remy Siemsen made her return to the Australia starting line-up as the nation were defeated 5-0 by Canada in an international friendly on Saturday.

Having only recently returned from a long-term ankle injury with Barclays Women’s Super League club Leicester City, the international friendly fixture against Canada saw Siemsen make her first start for the CommBank Matildas since January 2022.

Siemsen spoke to Football Australia about her return to the squad after the defeat in Langford, British Columbia.

“Yeah, I’m really happy to be back within this squad,” Siemsen said. “It’s something I always aspire to be a part of and I never take it for granted.

“When I get called in, it’s always a privilege and a huge honour and I love being around this group. I love the girls and I love the staff, so it’s been nice coming back into camp.”

Siemsen sustained an ankle ligament injury before the commencement of the 2023/2024 Barclays Women’s Super League season which resulted in the Leicester City forward facing an extended spell on the sidelines. After making her return to club football in The Foxes’ recent FA Women’s Continental Tyres League Cup clash with Manchester City, Siemsen discussed what it was like to get back on the pitch after her time on the sidelines.

She said “Yeah, it’s amazing to be back. Obviously, being out for six to eight weeks was tough, watching my teammates play. Something you always want to do is be playing as many minutes as you can, so it was definitely a challenge to get back from this ankle injury.

“I had a lot of pain in and around my body and inside my heart because I wanted to be out there with my teammates but I’m so proud of my Leicester team, they’ve started the season really well and it made it a lot easier coming back from injury. I just got to play freely against (Manchester) City in the cup and I felt really good out there.”

It was a difficult 90 minutes for Tony Gustavsson’s Australia side at Starlight Stadium on Saturday as Canada ran out emphatic 5-0 winners. Despite the result, Siemsen reflected positively on her latest international experience.

“I think it’s just all a part of the learning of becoming an international footballer, it’s not always sunshine, roses and daisies,” she said. “It comes with tough games and tough spells, but it’s something that is a part of the growing in that new era of your footballing career. It’s something that I wanted to take with both hands and use that opportunity to really stick to the game plan that Tony wanted us to play both in defence and in attack and it’s still adjusting to that level and learning how fast the game does go.

“It’s just the level above anything else that you can really get. That’s why I really pushed myself to move overseas and play in the top leagues and get as many match minutes as I can in the WSL; to help prepare me for these international games and get in here closer to that level. I think it’s one of those things that you still need to adjust to and the more minutes that you get, the more experience you can get and hopefully, with more minutes you can get up to that level that we need to be at.”

Australia will face Canada in their second international friendly fixture at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia on Wednesday.