Corsie back to face New Zealanders

Scotland head coach Shelley Kerr says captain Rachel Corsie will get game time in the two friendlies against New Zealand after recovering from a minor knee operation.

The Scots flew to Alicante from Glasgow on Tuesday, just escaping the extreme weather which caused chaos at the airport. They play the Football Ferns at the Pinatar Arena in San Pedro del Pinatar this afternoon and again on Tuesday.

“We’ve been really pleased with the camp so far,” Kerr said. “We’ve managed to fit in a lot of training sessions and had a squad game of 30 minutes each way on Wednesday. The players were really going for it.

“Rachel came through the squad game with flying colours, but we need to consider that she hasn’t played for a long time. We have to manage that and she will feature at some point over both games.”

Anna Signeul was head coach when the teams last met a year ago in the Cyprus Cup. Scotland won 3-2 against a nation four places ahead of them in the Fifa rankings, with goals from Jane Ross, Erin Cuthbert and Kim Little.

The latter, Scotland’s vice-captain, made her first start for Arsenal last week following the ACL knee injury which kept her out of the Euros. The midfielder is not in Spain, but is expected to return for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Switzerland and Poland.

There was an accolade for another Scotland player, Caroline Weir, yesterday when she was shortlisted for FIFPRO’S 2017 Women’s World XI. “It’s great to be named alongside so many talented players,” the former Hibernian forward, who now plays for Liverpool, said.

Like Scotland, New Zealand have a relatively new head coach in Austrian Andreas Heraf.