West Ham Women’s defender Amber Tysiak is set to make her return to action after a lengthy injury lay-off.

The new Barclays Women’s Super League season is almost upon us, with the new campaign starting on the 1^st of October. Our Hammers will face Manchester City at the Chigwell Construction Stadium in just over a week for their first game of the 23/24 season.  The team have been preparing at Chadwell Heath, but one person in particular will be especially ready to get back to the pitch.

After 161 days, Amber Tysiak will return to the WSL after a lengthy period off due to injury.  Her first appearance for West Ham was back in April, also against Man City as the start of her time in east London was severely impacted.

Tysiak played a total of four matches last season, so will be hoping to be more involved this season. Unfortunately, the Belgian picked up a small knock at the very beginning of the season but has been able to spend the long summer recovering and is ready to go next Sunday.

“It feels really good that the new season is almost here,” Amber told whufc.com.

“Pre-season has been a long period, but I think we needed that time as a team to start building something again. We’ve had time to really build up some strong match fitness and work on the technical side of the game that Rehanne [Skinner] wants us to implement this season.

“It’s also meant that some players, like myself, have had the time to get over little injuries and not feel like we are rushing to try and get back. I think that step-by-step in every game we have improved throughout pre-season and now we’re all really excited for getting underway.”

The defender featured for 60 minutes in West Ham’s last pre-season friendly against Bristol City, which saw the Irons win 3-0.  The 23-year-old has also been called up for Belgium as they play in the UEFA Women’s Nations League group stages this week.

Tysiak is also excited to be back in front of the home crowds and will be looking forward to them cheering her on this season.

“It’s always nice to have our fans cheering us on, but it’s even better when we can perform for them and get the victory. I really hope that there will be lots of supporters here for the first WSL game, we will need their support throughout the season.

“Our last pre-season match gave us a lot of confidence. Pre-season has had it’s ups and downs, but we’ve moved on and progressed well from each game.

“We’re learning from our mistakes, and I think the Bristol City game highlighted what we can do when we play the way that our manager wants to play.

“Now we have to make sure we prepare right when the team joins up after the international break and make sure we’re ready to get going on 1 October,” she added.

Written by Katie Vine.