Vidosic: Kirby's presence absolutely key for us

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Albion take on Arsenal at the Emirates the Sunday.

Olivia Johnson

2025-10-11T07:00+01:00

Fran Kirby has made 79 appearances for England. 📷 by Kyle Hemsley.

Dario Vidosic believes any team in football would miss Fran Kirby after the midfielder had to sit out last weekend's defeat to Tottenham in the WSL.

The former England international was ruled out through illness, but made her return on Wednesday night in the Subway League Cup against West Ham.

“When she's not there, naturally you do (miss her) because of the quality she possesses. Her natural leadership and experience, she has played in all these big games. She knows what they're all about as she's won the WSL.

“She is someone that pulls the girls through and being a younger team, the players around her lean on her in tougher moments. She's very intelligent as a footballer and as a person. The others just need time to learn from her and to learn within games.

“We do miss her when she's not there. When you look at everything she possesses, her quality, I think any team would miss her if she wasn't on the pitch.”

Albion sit sixth in the WSL heading into Sunday's game at the Emirates, as they look to bounce back from their last outing at Spurs.

“It was sort of a game that was on edge," Vidosic said. "We were probably a little bit unfortunate with a few refereeing decisions early on that we've had confirmation that it was incorrect, it should have been a penalty and red card.

“If we put that aside and we look at the rest of the performance in the first half, I think they were a bit better, but in the second half we were stronger.

Fran Kirby joined Albion in 2024. 📷 by Kyle Hemsley.

"We had to adapt a lot, it was a tough week in terms of late sort of exclusions, sicknesses and injuries that threw us about a bit.

“It was a decent performance, one that probably warranted at least a point, but again it wasn't to be. We don't feel good after that game, we don't feel good not to get the win or to take some points away, but I still think it's been quite a positive start to the season.”

You can follow Albion's match against the Gunners live on our match centre here.