City boss Gareth Taylor will be without several first-team regulars for Sunday’s FA WSL match against Tottenham.

Taylor’s side, with 11 successive FA WSL wins, will look to keep pressure on leaders Chelsea ahead of the international break.

But City will have to do it without a number of players who are all nursing injuries, including skipper Steph Houghton and Demi Stokes.

Lauren Hemp and Laura Coombs will be assessed ahead of Sunday after picking up an ear infection.

“Lauren has missed the last three days of training,” said Taylor.

“She’s been in really good form. She had ear infection and has had minimal sleep. She came in today and trained but she is probably feeling the effects of tablets she is taking.

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“We will monitor her but hopefully she’s’ better (by Sunday).

“Other than Lauren, nothing has changed really from last game. Just that addition of Lauren could help us a lot in terms of extra body and extra person to call on.

“We are in better shape than we were for Barcelona, but it’ll be after international break before we see Demi and Steph. 

Asked how Laura Coombs was progressing, Taylor added: “After the game she had a bit of a period where she didn’t feel great. She felt dizzy. We had an issue on Monday and couldn’t train.

“So at that point we took a step back. She came on and played the final period of the Barcelona game. She was back in training today feeling better and hopefully she’ll be fine for the weekend.”

The City boss also revealed he is hoping Rose Lavelle can win a place back in the starting XI after what Taylor described as a “difficult” first campaign in England for the US international.

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“It’s been difficult for Rose with the transition,” he said.

“Coming from a different league, we’ve seen with a lot of players from the US join WSL clubs.

“She’s picked up injuries in the period she’s been out - and also there’s been good form from other players in that position.

“Rose always trains well and gives her best. She will have a contribution to make in the last part of the season.

“Her minutes are starting to go up now. Unfortunately against Everton she sustained an injury.

“Most of the time she’s been available is when the US camps have happened. Hopefully now she can stay injury free and do her bit for the team.”

Asked whether rotation for the game against Spurs was inevitable, Taylor said: “We’ll see. Sometimes we rotate on the back of lots of games, sometimes earlier in the cycle of games.

“But we can’t control players when they go away on international duty. Some don’t play much; some play all the minutes.

“We don’t want push players to breaking point but we need to push players. It’s important players are fit and available. We need to squeeze every last drop out of them but not break players, which is something we would never do.”

Chelsea remain two points clear at the top of the table despite City’s fantastic winning streak, with a potential title decider between the clubs to come three weeks on Sunday at the Academy Stadium.

Taylor says every game from now to the end of the season is crucial, starting with Spurs.

“It’s a big game for us,” said Taylor.

“Every game we approach is the same. We have got ourselves in a fantastic position but there’s more work to be done, we know that.

“We need to approach this game in the right manner, which we will, and hopefully we achieve our objective. 

“We are focused on Tottenham and want to achieve our objective.”