Russo fires Manchester United to WSL win as Arsenal suffer Williamson blow

The sight of the England captain Leah Williamson on her stomach waving an arm in the air before crashing to the ground in frustration, after her knee seemed to pop following an innocuous challenge, marred Manchester United’s victory over Arsenal that kept their title charge well and truly alive.

It was a worrying scene for the England manager Sarina Wiegman, with fewer than 100 days to go until the World Cup gets underway in Australia and New Zealand, and more immediately worrying for an injury ravaged Arsenal, who were already having to play the centre-back in midfield to cope with an injury list that is growing match-on-match.

Williamson had stepped forward into the middle 10 minutes into Arsenal’s Champions League quarter final second leg against Bayern Munich, to compensate for the loss of Kim Little to a knee injury that this week was announced as season-ending.

At Leigh Sports Village, in a critical game in a four-way title race, it was Williamson that would crumble to the turf, in the 12th minute this time, to force Jonas Eidevall to try and ram more square pegs into round holes before a Champions League semi-final against Wolfsburg on Sunday.

Williamson went off, helped down the tunnel by the club captain Little, and was seen in on crutches at half-time, adding her name to a list of injured players that includes Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema, who have ACL injuries, Caitlin Foord, who is on the cusp of returning, and Steph Catley, who was deemed fit enough for the bench in Leigh.

The forward Gio Queiroz, who was recalled from a loan spell with Everton in January, would be the player to enter in Williamson’s stead, highlighting the lack of midfield options available.

Eidevall had made three changes to the team