Tottenham manager Rehanne Skinner described Chioma Ubogagu as ‘flying’ upon her return to football, after the forward made her first appearance following her nine-month suspension for unintentionally using a banned substance.
Ubogagu was serving a ban for the consumption of Canrenone, which she had been using as medication for skin acne after initially being prescribed it whilst based in the United States. The suspension had been in place since the start of 2022, and was announced in May.
The 30-year-old was restricted to 10 WSL appearances during her debut season with Spurs because of the suspension, and made her return to action as an 83rd minute substitute during her side’s 3-0 loss to Manchester City at Brisbane Road on Saturday.
Skinner explained that while Ubogagu was raring to go, the club were being mindful with managing her minutes as she adapts to playing competitive football once more.
“I’m delighted for Chi,” said Skinner. “She’s gone through a really difficult time over the last 12 months and obviously we understand that. It was mistake, an honest mistake really and she’s paid the price for that.
“She’s a fantastic person, she’s really dedicated and we’ve been desperate to get her back in a position where she can join the squad again. And now we’ve got her here we’ll keep building her up with her minutes to be able to be confident in match play – it’s different to training, for the period of time that she’s been training with us.
“So we’ll bring her back into it, there’s no pressure on her we just need her to start getting back onto the grass and enjoying it.
“The time that she was able to restart training, she was flying. She’s literally ready to go, it’s just we have to be mindful that match play is a little bit different at times and we’ve just got to make sure that we build her back into that properly to just support her in the best way possible and ensure that it’s not running the risk of any injuries.”
Credit: 90min.com
