White tunes up in Canada

England captain Faye White is to go on loan to Canadian side Ottowa Fury into help her preparations for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Knee injury
Arsenal LFC central defender White suffered a cruciate ligament knee injury in 2006/07 pre-season and missed almost all of her club’s UEFA Women’s Cup and domestic treble-winning campaign, as well as England’s decisive World Cup qualifiers with the Netherlands and France. She returned to international action on 13 May in the 4-0 UEFA WOMEN’S EURO 2009™ qualifying defeat of Northern Ireland and also was a substitute in a friendly win by the same scoreline against Iceland four days later.

Month-long loan
But with England starting their World Cup campaign in China on 11 September, the 29-year-old White has little time to gain competitive match sharpness with Arsenal beforehand and has joined Ottowa for the final month of the North American USL W-League season, which ends on 21 July. "We are delighted to attract such an exciting, high profile player," said Fury head coach Frank Lofranco, whose team have been runners-up for the last two years and are bidding to reach the play-offs again.