Aoife Mannion looks ahead to Man Utd Women WSL clash with Everton | 31 March 2024

“There’s definitely a level of apprehension,” began the Reds’ defender.

“Each injury I’ve come back from, I’ve randomly felt slightly different about. So this one, because it was a muscle injury, it was quite easy to imagine doing that sort of injury again.

“And when you are a substitute, you do worry about your muscles getting too cold – running on with a big smiley face, breaking into a sprint and all of a sudden it’s a Shakespearean tragedy as you pull a muscle!

“You do have those moments where you think like that, but what I’ve found is that it helps to remember it’s quite normal to think like that when you’ve been out for a really long time – to think: ‘Am I going to be okay?’

“I’ve found it helps to just not take too hard of a line one way or another. And it really helps having a nice team and medical staff around to just bounce off any little worries.”