Emma Hayes previews Women’s Champions League clash v Atletico Madrid

Hayes gave an update on Millie Bright and Fran Kirby’s fitness and confirmed they are both available to play tomorrow…

‘It’s fair to say that this time of the year players are going to be managing situations.’

‘Millie is a player that will put herself through absolutely anything to play games of football and the realities are that she took a knock before the international camp, she was just having some issues around her hamstring tendon and it’s taken a little bit of time to settle down, but it’s settled down and she’s fit to play.

‘Fran is fine. In the Bristol game she said to me at half-time that she was struggling a little bit, she came off after 60 minutes because she couldn’t continue in the game and she’s taken the right amount of time to get it right during the international break and she too is fit to play.’

It’s a busy month ahead for Hayes and her team with at least six fixtures in March, however, the Chelsea manager is relishing the opportunity to be competing for trophies in all competitions

‘I want to play in the biggest competitions and I want to be at the latter stages, I don’t want to be thinking about spare weekends in any tournament so I’m really happy that we’ve got that and we must embrace it and relish the challenges ahead.

‘I approach every game the same I do every week, I’m thoroughly professional about every game we play and to do it any differently just sells the team short.

‘I do have a mindset that you have to train every day like it’s a final and we take our work seriously here and the players have to apply themselves every week, not just Champions League week.

‘There’s always big conversations around Chelsea and the Champions League but the realities are that we compete for trophies every year and it doesn’t matter what trophy it is, we just want to be competing and getting to finals and winning big games and that’s what we’ve done in the time since I’ve been here.’

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