Kim 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 different things this year that have brought this team together,” says Little. “What Beth has been through with her mum [who died of cancer in January], Beth and Viv’s injuries, other injuries, Jen [Beattie]’s cancer battle previously, and then there’s lots of underlying things that not everyone sees.
“There’s a lot of elements that are not football-based that can just give you a bit of perspective. That’s maybe been a part of [why] we always give our best, but maybe it’s put a little bit more fire in the side, I think that’s natural when things like that happen.”
Little does not get too emotional about injuries. Her “pragmatic and logical” brain doesn’t let her. “Sometimes I’m like: ‘Should I be crying? No, that’s not me.’ So, I don’t do it,” she says. “I reframe it because that’s what allows me to cope with it.
“I want to be on the pitch and I want to be doing what I’m paid to do, that side of it I don’t like thinking about too much because it makes me quite sad. But on the other hand, it’s part of football and it gives me time now to get myself back to a really good place physically.
“If you’ve had injuries before it gives you a different perspective on things and how you can contribute and that’s what I’ll look to do as best I can for the remainder of the season, from a slightly more detached place.”
Is it good to see the team cope without their captain or does it leave her feeling replaceable? “I should enjoy the moments when we win trophies and games, and I do, but now that I’m a bit older I get way more pride in seeing the players that are younger than me doing well, performing and stepping up when they need to,” she says.
“I’ve played at this club for a long time and am a leader here. Part of that role is helping to bring up others and develop what’s coming after you.”
She highlights Williamson stepping forward to midfield after Little’s injury, with Lotte Wubben-Moy coming off the bench to fill in at the back as a consequence. “When I see performances like Leah’s, when you’re being thrown in the deep end, or Lotte, who actually didn’t expect to come on, having to go on in one of the toughest games of the season and be able to perform, that is what I think about after, that makes me proud.
“It’s really good to have that perspective sometimes, too. When you’re playing all the time, you’re in a bubble. But then when you’re out you realise that someone else will just slot in because that’s the way everything works: there’s always someone else, and once you are at peace with that mindset you are happy someone else will get to go in and have an opportunity to thrive. That’s a nice outlook to have.”
Arsenal need their fringe players to step up now more than ever. Their title aspirations were dented by the defeat at Manchester United, but their hopes are still alive and they are two games away from the Champions League final.
The trip to Germany will be tough, but a second leg at the Emirates on 1 May, with more than 45,000 tickets sold, offers a glimmer of hope. With the injury list almost as long as the team sheet Arsenal will need the bank holiday crowd’s backing.
Still, it would be a disappointment if Arsenal finished the season with one trophy, the Continental League Cup, despite the adversity. “We completely have what we need to win the league and, if we’re at our highest level, the Champions League,” Little says. “But we all know as athletes that being able to get to that level and stay there is not easy, even when you feel good.”
