Ellen White determined to bring World Cup form to Manchester City

Ellen White is brimming with belief after her World Cup exploits and confident she can push on with Manchester City once fit again.

White had a superb World Cup over the summer, finishing as joint top-scorer with six goals as England came fourth.

The 30-year-old went into the tournament in France having just left Birmingham to join Manchester City.

While the club kicked off their 2019-20 Barclays FA Women’s Super League campaign with Saturday’s 1-0 derby win over Manchester United at the Etihad Stadium, White is having to wait to make her debut due to a knee injury.

She told the PA news agency: “It was just in training and I tore my meniscus and had to have surgery.

“I’m in my rehab at the moment and looking forward to being back soon. I just want to be on the pitch with the girls now.

“I’m hoping (to be available for selection) kind of middle of October. I don’t really want to put a specific date on it because I don’t want to not reach that, but that is what I’m thinking and the physios are thinking at the moment.”

White, who also sat out England’s recent friendlies against Belgium and Norway, says her World Cup form has left her feeling “super confident”.

“I really enjoyed the World Cup,” said White, who was speaking at the launch of a partnership between Manchester City Women and DYLON Colour Catcher.

“I just love being an England player and enjoying playing football and scoring goals for my country.

“I feel really, super confident and for now it is just about getting fit and back and ready to play for Man City.

“Coming here, I want to develop, I still want to learn, I still want to get better and I’m surrounded by incredibly talented players and staff members that really want to push you and develop you as players.

“I really feel like I’ll be able to push on here and hopefully really contribute to the team, whether that is work-rate, goals, whatever I can do on the pitch.

“I obviously want to perform as much as I can, show the passion and desire I did for England, and for other clubs I have played for, for City, and obviously contribute to goal-scoring as well.”

White feels the benefit of her move getting done before the World Cup was clear during the tournament.

Reflecting on her summer, White said: “It’s been a bit of a roller coaster really.

“Signing for City, I was extremely proud and felt really lucky that they wanted to sign me. For me personally, I wanted to get that signing done before so I could completely focus at the World Cup, and I think that was pretty evident, that I felt in a really good place. I felt really calm, relaxed.

“There is a little bit of disappointment obviously because we really felt and believed we could win the World Cup, but I’m very happy with how I performed.

“I’m very proud to have been part of the World Cup with England and for what we achieved, and especially back home, the amount the country really caught hold of the World Cup and the amount of people that were watching the games, the coverage, it was really important. We were extremely proud of that, of how many people wanted to watch the women’s game.”

England’s 2-1 semi-final loss to the United States was watched by a peak UK television audience of 11.7million.

Manchester City Women’s Football Club recently announced a long-term partnership with DYLON Colour Catcher. For more information visit http://www.colourcatcher.co.uk

PA