Both Denise O’Sullivan with a knee injury and Ruesha Littlejohn with an Achilles issue missed Ireland’s 0-3 defeat to Sweden Friday, and it’s confirmed O’Sullivan will not be recovered in time for the rematch Tuesday.
Eileen Gleeson, however, had some positives to take away from the heavy defeat. Ireland had some significant chances in the first half when both Amber Barrett and Lily Agg were off target before Johanna Rytting Kaneryd with two goals and Fridolina Rolfo with one gave Sweden the win.
“I thought the both of them [Barrett’s and Agg’s attempts] were going in, and then it’s a different game. But these are top teams you’re playing against, you risk that when you venture up the field, which is what we want to do, we want to be higher up, we want to be aggressive but this is the trade-off.”
“The first-half is the reason we can walk away with our heads held high and maybe a bit more positive heading into Tuesday. The scoreline did lie in terms of we were on top at points, in the majority of the first-half. We have to bounce back stronger on Tuesday…We had them rattled in the first-half and we had them going back to their goal which is something we’ve obviously worked hard on, whether that is physical, tactical or mental. It’s definitely something we can be proud to see, putting them on the back foot.”
Gleeson also denied that Katie McCabe suffered any injury, though she seemed to tire Friday.
“No, I think she’s fine. It’s probably just fatigue at this point in the game. Like I said, we’ll just work on using the whole squad. It is tough, the turnaround is quick.”