Injury concerns for Shamrock Rovers as Stephanie Zambra suffers recurrence of hamstring strain
- Macdara Ferris
- Sat, May 20 2023
Shamrock Rovers have injury concerns ahead of their game against DLR Waves in Tallaght Stadium today (kick-off 5.30pm).
Going into this weekend the Hoops sit second in the league table just one point behind league leaders Peamount United and are the last team unbeaten in the Women’s Premier Division.
However, due to injury they continue to miss Republic of Ireland striker Stephanie Zambra and now have lost influential centre-half Shauna Fox for a few weeks.
Head Coach Collie O’Neill also has to deal with a doubt over Jamie Thompson who, along with Hoops skipper Áine O’Gorman, has scored five goals so far this season (just one behind the league’s top scorer Kate Mooney of Peamount United).
“It looks like she will miss Saturday and a few weeks after that due to a thigh strain,” said O’Neill speaking to shamrockrovers.ie about Fox who picked up the injury in last week’s 1-0 win in Athlone.
“Jaime Thompson is one that we'll have to assess as well because she came off with a knee injury.
"Stephanie Zambra unfortunately had another recurrence of the hamstring injury, just when she was in training and on her way to returning to playing. It looks like she'll be out for another few weeks again."
Lia O’Leary got the winner for Rovers last week against Athlone Town. "It was a really tough game. Athlone in fairness to them are a very good side and didn't make it easy for us. It's a difficult place to go so we're really happy with that win."
“Lia did an awful lot of work on the day. We kind of changed the shape to try and deal with Athlone's threats and then look at ways that we could hurt them a bit more than by playing our normal way.
"One of those ways was to play Lia a little bit higher as more of a wing-back and it's nice that something we worked on came off. But it's a great run, great finish and she's been in top form so far this year.
"It seems to be a theme of a lot of the games as the season has gone by, where teams try and have a good go at us and thankfully, so far we've been able to withstand the pressure that they throw at us in the first half.
"Then our extra fitness levels get us through the second half. That's when teams go up through the gears and have that extra level to go to, and that's where we're finishing off most teams."
Rovers are the top scorers in the league with 22 and have conceded the fewest number of goals (four in nine games). It was a fourth consecutive clean sheet for Amanda Budden – who saved a late penalty from Karen Duggan against Peamount United in that run.
“I think clean sheets are what always win league titles, so it's vital that we keep that clean sheet run going."
The Hoops have won all four of their home games and are looking to keep that run going against eighth placed DLR Waves.
"The crowd has really helped in all the games that we've played because of the buzz and the atmosphere, and I know that the players feed off it. We feel that it has been growing over the last couple of weeks and hopefully that will continue on Saturday because it really does help the team out."
Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl …
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