Despite having her impressive run of form cut short due to injury, Jamaica International and Manchester City striker Khadija Shaw did enough prior to the season-ending surgery, and so it comes as no surprise that she is up for the coveted Barclays Women's Super League Player of the Season award.

Shaw, who recently copped the Football Writers' Association (FWA) Women's Footballer of the Year award, is no stranger to accolades, as she was named 2022-23 Player of the Season for Manchester City, and also pocketed a couple Player of the Month prizes since joining the club in 2021.

In fact, it is Shaw's impressive goalscoring exploit that not only propelled her to being the club's all-time leading striker, but also places City at the summit of the WSL standing, heading into their final assignment away to Aston Villa on Saturday May 18. However, their hope of clinching the title remains on edge, as they have played a game more than second-placed Chelsea.

Both Shaw and goalkeeper Khiara Keating, who has also been nominated for Barclays Women’s Super League Player of the Season award, have impressively helped Gareth Taylor’s side relentlessly pursue a second-ever league title with a string of outstanding displays.

Shaw, 27, has scored 22 goals across 25 appearances in all competitions this term – with 21 of those coming in the WSL. She recently became the Club’s all-time leading scorer with 68 goals – which she has since extended to 72 before a foot injury prematurely ended her season.

Meanwhile, Keating has performed beyond her years in the 19-year-old’s breakthrough campaign for Taylor’s team – playing every league minute in 2023/24.

The England youth international has been an integral part of the best defensive record in the division with City conceding only 14 league goals so far this term. What’s more, outstanding is that Keating has maintained nine WSL clean sheets which is the most so far across the competition.

Shaw's unmatched scoring ability, and Keating's shot stopping exploit resulted in both being placed on the short list for prestigious annual honour, alongside Niamh Charles (Chelsea), Grace Clinton (Spurs), Lauren James (Chelsea), Jutta Rantala (Leicester), Elisabeth Terland (Brighton) and Lotte Wubben-Moy (Arsenal).

Sarina Wiegman said England’s trip had yielded “many positives” after the team concluded their double-header of friendlies in southern Spain with a 5-1 win over Italy.

Four days on from the 7-2 defeat of Austria at the Estadio Nuevo Mirador in Algeciras, another thumping victory for the Lionesses at the same venue began with Lotte Wubben-Moy heading her first international goal in the opening minute.

Lauren Hemp extended the lead with a brace, the second via an excellent header, and after Michela Cambiaghi pulled a goal back for Italy in stoppage time at the end of the first half, substitutes Ella Toone and Rachel Daly completed the rout in the second half.

Boss Wiegman told ITV: “I think the whole camp, a lot of things pleased me.

“I think we had the opportunity to play many players…see what the level was, that was exactly what we wanted, see players in some positions and the connections between players, and then the competition.

“And when you have then such good wins as we had tonight and last Friday, that’s really nice too of course.”

Next up for England are the opening Euro 2025 qualifiers in April as Wiegman’s side begin the journey of defending the title they won on home soil in 2022.

When asked if the camp had given her the answers she needed ahead of the matches in April, Wiegman said: “You never know, because things in football can change so quickly, but it gave us many answers on questions we had at this moment.

“We could take this opportunity to see so many players and play two very good games, train also, see the under-23s (who joined the senior team on the trip). So just very many positives about this week.”

Those positives for Wiegman – who saw Leah Williamson withdraw from her original squad due to injury and Fran Kirby do so between the two matches – included debuts being made by 20-year-old Grace Clinton, a goalscorer in the Austria match, and Millie Turner introduced as a substitute against Italy.

On Arsenal defender Wubben-Moy, after her 12th senior appearance for the team, Wiegman said: “I think she’s definitely taken a step forward because she’s developing a lot and very good.

“That’s what we see weekly at Arsenal and that’s what she shows here too. What you can (also) see is the competition in the position is just really high.”

Wubben-Moy heading in from an Alex Greenwood delivery was an early example as England – on a night that saw them also make some notable errors at the back – demonstrated the problems they can cause from corners.

Wiegman added: “We are always working on it. We had a little more emphasis on it, we had a little more time this week.

“So it’s really good to see that it had so much effect and hopefully we can do that again in the following games.”

England boss Sarina Wiegman has said she is “very worried” about the playing calendar after naming her squad for this month’s Women’s Nations League double-header.

The Lionesses return to action, after their defeat in the World Cup final on August 20, by facing Scotland in Sunderland a week on Friday and the Netherlands in Utrecht four days later to open their campaign in the new competition.

The Arsenal players in her squad – forward Alessia Russo and defender Lotte Wubben-Moy – took part in Champions League qualifying matches last Wednesday and Saturday.

Wiegman, whose players started their pre-World Cup preparation camp on June 19, told a press conference on Wednesday when asked if she was concerned about the calendar and time off: “Yes, I am very worried.

“I was worried before the World Cup, and we knew this was a very short turnaround.

“It’s a bigger thing – we’re all talking about the calendar and we really have to get connected with FIFA, UEFA, the federations, and we have to make that better.

“Of course the game is growing, which is really good. But it has to grow together and players need some rest too.

“Next week they come in and some players only had six days off, which after such a high-level, high-pressure competition is not good for them. And that has been going on for a long time, because we have major tournaments in the summer all the time. So the urgency to solve it and make it better is really, really high.

“The players will come in and we first have to see how they are physically, and we have to get them fresh, and do everything to do that. That’s going to be a challenge.

“Of course you have the team and you want to perform at the highest level, and also you want players to be fresh. For me and my staff it’s balancing (the) two – is this player fit enough, fresh enough, to play the game? That’s balancing, it’s so intense, and players are not robots.”

She added: “I’ve talked to coaches. I think everyone’s aware that we have to speak with each other and we can do a little better, and we all know it’s pretty complex.

“But I think conversations are going on, and we just need to keep doing that and hopefully find better solutions than we had.”