Gareth Taylor has confirmed he is likely to be without Caroline Weir, Demi Stokes and Gemma Bonner for Sunday’s FA Women’s Super League trip to Brighton and Hove Albion.

The trio are sidelined through injury, while Aoife Mannion and Megan Campbell remain long-term absentees.

United States stars Sam Mewis, Rose Lavelle and Abby Dahlkemper will also be unavailable with the World Cup winners still on international duty.

Sharing the latest team news ahead of this weekend’s game, Taylor admitted: “We’re under no illusions – we’re a little bit depleted.

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“At the moment, Gemma has a grade two ankle injury, which she picked up in training unfortunately.

“It’s a bit more long-term with the severity of the ankle. These things happen.

“[With Caroline] it’s a bit of a niggle – a continuation of a hamstring issue she had pre-Christmas. Unfortunately, it’s flared up again.

Demi Stokes is another one – carrying a slight knee injury.

“We have to manager Aoife in the right manner. Sometimes, she feels pain; sometimes, it’s alright – but it’s a little way off before she’ll be available for selection.

“She’s working tremendously hard. The backrooms staff have done really good things with her and all of the injured players we have.

“It’s a case of managing players in the right manner, making sure everyone gets as much as they need.

“Sometimes, you get the opportunity to pick from a fit and healthy squad but at the moment, like most other clubs, we’re not able to.

“Hopefully, we’ll grind through this period and get players back in the near future.”

Following the news of Jill Scott’s loan move to Everton, Taylor also confirmed the decision was based on the midfielder’s need for more minutes ahead of Team GB’s Olympic squad selection.

“Jill has a desire to make the Olympic team,” he said. “We want to help players as much as possible.

“We understand they want to play for their national teams – at Olympics, Euros, World Cups… We want to support her with the opportunity, which could be the last one of playing in the Olympics.

“Those coaches will probably be sending the same message: ‘You need to be playing regularly.’

“We couldn’t guarantee that will Jill – I can’t guarantee it with any player. We want competition – no-one has the right.

“Jill understands that. The opportunity arose for her to go to Everton and get some gametime under her belt.

“We’ve been sensitive to Jill’s situation. She’s done everything in the right manner. We’ll help to support her in her quest to make the Olympics.

“We were governed a little bit by the window. We had to make a decision – we couldn’t wait any longer.

“It’s not ideal timing as we’re low on bodies, which you could see on Wednesday against Chelsea.

“We’re fortunate the US players are coming back.”

City return to FA Women’s Super League action this weekend with a trip to Brighton and Hove Albion with Taylor’s side looking to bounce back from the midweek Continental Cup quarter-final extra-time defeat to Chelsea.

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With the Seagulls having held his side to a draw however in our opening home league game of the campaign, the boss warned against any complacency.

“It will be a tough game,” he previewed. “See what happened earlier in the season – they’re a tough team to break down.

“It will be the same again. Chelsea only just about scraped a 1-0 there. It’s never an easy place to go.

“Hope [Powell] always has her teams set up and well-organised.”

Asked whether the Club intended to recruit further in the transfer window, he replied: “It’s unlikely.

“We’ve looked at it. Abby is a player we really liked. There was the potential to wait until summer.

“Ideally, I’d have two very good players in each position, fighting it out, which is healthy.

“We have to make sure everybody’s fresh and ready to go. We’ll do our best to try to get on the journey home with three points in the bag.”