Kim Little: ‘Dealing with all the injuries has put more fire in Arsenal’

K im Little missed the key moments that booked Arsenal’s Champions League semi-final showdown with Wolfsburg. In the 12th minute of the quarter‑final second leg against Bayern Munich, the influential midfielder left the pitch with a knee injury that would end her season before Arsenal scored two stunning goals to give them a slender 2-1 lead on aggregate.

“I came into the changing room and I got assessed straight away to try and see what it could be,” says the 32-year-old Scot, who signed a new long-term deal with the Gunners this week. “It’s a weird place because everyone’s outside watching the game and then you’re suddenly just this person who’s underneath the stadium.

“Obviously, you can’t tell what’s wrong with an injury like that because you need to do a scan. Then I had to wait for doping to say that I was not going to be doing a test.

“I can’t remember when I came out to watch the game but I had missed both goals. It was a bit all over the place, I don’t remember too much of it.

“I was shown the goals at half-time and my mind was blown because they were two great goals. And then I watched the second half out behind the dugout.”

The captain’s injury added to Arsenal’s growing number of sidelined players. That Leah Williamson, the vice-captain, ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in Wednesday’s 1-0 Women’s Super League defeat at Manchester United further lengthened a list that included Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord.

Arsenal had to dig deep against Bayern Munich to come back from a goal down and set up Sunday’s semi-final first leg in Wolfsburg. It is never nice having players out injured but, in some respects, the Gunners have thrived off of the lowered expectations.

“There’s been