Everton Women’s manager, Brian Sørensen has confirmed the hamstring injury Nathalie Björn picked up on international duty with Sweden will see her side-lined for “a couple of weeks”, whilst he also paid tribute to former-chairman, Bill Kenwright.

Speaking to MerseySportLive, he said: “Unfortunately, Nathalie Björn is not available, she should be out for a couple of weeks. I think everybody else is more or less (fit). We have not got Clare (Wheeler) back yet because they (Australia) had three games in Australia so she is going to arrive back in the UK today and tomorrow in training, but she should be fine. Tough programme for some of them but it is how it is so we have to deal with it.”

The injury comes at a difficult time for Everton, as Elise Stenevik and Sara Holmgaard are both unavailable through injury too.

Sørensen said: “I am confident that we have the skills in the team to deal with it and do it well. She is a big player for us, she will be side-lined for a bit. I am confident that we have players that can fill the role, we probably just have to look at a different shape.”

The positive news for Evertonians though is that goalkeeper, Emily Ramsey, is fit and in contention to start on Sunday. The shot-stopper withdrew from the England Under-23 camp last week, but her club manager confirmed: “yeah, she is fine.”

Off the field, the big story on the blue half of Merseyside has been the passing of Chairman, Bill Kenwright. The Danish national paid tribute to the 78-year-old: “It is a sad, sad time for the whole club. He was a big part of it for so many years and it was good to see the boys the other day have a really good game on the back of that, and hopefully we can do the same on Sunday.”

The Toffees face strong opposition in the form of Tottenham Hotspur, on Sunday, who sit third in the table after bouncing back from an opening day defeat to Chelsea by winning their following trio of games.

Sørensen acknowledged Sunday’s challenge: “Yeah, they have been good. I know Robert is a good coach and he will give them a lot of freedom. It is going to be a tough challenge for us, they have a lot of confidence.

“I still think we can match them of course and it is going to be a tight and even game, but we need to be at our best because they will definitely come and have all the confidence to come out and showcase themselves.”

Everton go into the tie in poor form, having picked up only three points this season after losing three of their four opening fixtures, including a 5-0 thrashing by Manchester United: “Looking at the game, I am pleased with so many things, the way we built through them, the amount of chances we actually created against a very, very good team. In the situations that we get in, we just need to get better at executing them, and that is in both ends of the pitch.

“I was actually pleased with so many things, but of course we need to do better; we cannot concede five goals, no matter what team we are playing. We will try to be more ruthless on Friday.”

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