Yui Hasegawa 'very close' to making her Manchester City debut

Gareth Taylor has confirmed that summer signing Yui Hasegawa is 'very close' to making her Manchester City debut, having been sidelined with injury for her side's first two WSL fixtures.

Hasegawa joined City from West Ham on deadline day, but was absent from the squad for her new club's opening two defeats to Aston Villa and Chelsea due to an ankle problem.

The Japan midfielder did not go away with her national team during the October international break due to the injury, enabling her to remain in Manchester - and this has put her in a strong position ahead of City's first home league fixture of the campaign against Leicester on Sunday.

"Very close," Taylor said, when asked how near Hasegawa was to making her City debut. "Really pleased to have Yui, she's a player we've admired for a long time. I think she's able to play in a number of positions in midfield areas.

"Very bright, very intelligent, very fit player. I think that's the one thing I've really noticed with her; she covers the ground really well, she's intelligent.

"So she's close, she's close. She looked good in the training sessions. Just because she had a slight injury, she wasn't able to go away with Japan, we managed to keep her here, worked hard with her and got her into a good position to be available on Sunday."

Hasegawa joined City following one season with West Ham, where she scored two goals in 17 WSL appearances as the Hammers secured their highest ever top-flight finish.

City go in search of their first points of the season on Sunday when they host fellow winless side Leicester at the Academy Stadium.