Sophie Brisland-Hancocks "emotional" after speedy return to playing

Sophie Brisland-Hancocks admitted to feeling emotional after making an earlier than expected return from injury allowed her to help Swansea City Women book a place in the Genero Adran Trophy final for the second successive year.

The midfielder underwent minor knee surgery just five weeks ago, but was named in the starting line-up as the Swans beat Wrexham 3-2 at The Rock to set up a final assignment against The New Saints in Newtown on February 9. 

Having anticipated a longer lay-off, Brisland-Hancocks was delighted to have made a speedy recovery in time to help her team in such an important fixture.

“I’m doing really well, it was personally quite an emotional day,” she said.

“It was emotional being back playing sooner than I thought I would be, and I’m just over the moon.

“It makes it even better that I could come back for a fixture like this and I’m buzzing that it ended in a positive way.”

And, having lost last season's final, there will be no shortage of motivation and incentive for Brisland-Hancocks and her teammates when the showpiece occasion arrives.

“At the start of the season we set winning silverware as one of our main intentions, so for us this is just another step towards that," she added.

“I think our motivation is sky high, we want to be doing well and winning trophies, so we’ve taken another step in the right direction and it will just be hard work now all the way up to that final as we have done all season.

“The teams across our league this season are more competitive than ever, which is fantastic for the women’s game in Wales, so for us it’s a competitive final which is what we want.

“As a player you want to be in finals that are a real test, and TNS will definitely give us that fight.”