Jill Roord gives fitness update, "if I need to step back, I will"

Manchester City's Jill Roord has made her return to the pitch after suffering an ACL injury which kept her sidelined all the way from January to the beginning of this season, returning near the end of September.

The Dutch international made quite the impact during her first season at Manchester City, making 16 appearances in all competitions and scoring eight goals during those caps. However, her season was disappointingly cut short when she suffered an ACL injury at the beginning of 2024 while participating in a 2-1 win over Manchester United in the FA Cup.

But after a huge amount of time unavailable for The Cityzens, Roord has made her much-awaited return to the football pitch with the squad.

Jill made her comeback as a substitute against Brighton and Hove Albion at the end of last month and helped guide her team over the final line to win the game 1-0.

Since then, Roord has played a whole first half before making way for fellow Dutch player Vivienne Miedema, then played more than 10 minutes against Barcelona and then recently featured for the whole 90 minutes in a 2-1 win over Liverpool.

Jill Roord on her fitness state

"I feel stronger and fitter than I have ever been. I need to build rhythm but so far, I am happy with where I am at. (I feel) very good, pretty normal. I've played 90 minutes now and I'm very happy with that.

"The medical staff and they will manage me every day and every training. If everything goes fine then great - but if I need to take a step back then I will. I don't expect that and will stay calm."

Roord then moved on to talk about Man City in the UEFA Champions League, "Obviously starting with Barca, beating them and the way we did it gives us more confidence. It's difficult when you only have a few days in between before Liverpool - difficult. It's always tough to play such an important game a few days later but we did really well."

"It's a different atmosphere (playing in the Champions League) and I am really looking forward to being involved in those games and hopefully we get through. It's important we play with the same intensity (as against Barcelona) then we should be the better team, but if we don't do that it will be tough. It's a 0-0 again and we have to show the same intensity."

Manchester City next play St Polten in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday evening at 17:45 (UK).