Chelsea Women goalkeeper Carly Telford called up to Team GB squad for Tokyo Olympics

The FA via Getty Images

Chelsea Women goalkeeper Carly Telford has been called up to the Team GB squad for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

Telford has been called up as a replacement for Manchester City goalkeeper Karen Bardsley, who withdrew earlier this month due to injury.

Bardsley picked up an injury while on loan at US side OL Reign and has now been replaced in the 18-player squad by Telford.

Everton’s Sandy MacIver is on the reserve list, but Team GB women’s football head coach Hege Riise opted for Telford to be Bardsley’s direct replacement due to her experience.

The Chelsea goalkeeper is well used to tournament football, having helped England reach the semi-finals of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup – a feat which secured GB Football their spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games next month.

Telford said: “This is an amazing honour, although I really feel for KB and send her all my best wishes for her speedy recovery.

“The goalkeepers’ union is not a cliché - although we are competing to play we always want each other to do well. I am so disappointed for her but of course tremendously proud to get the chance to play at an Olympic Games. It is an incredible honour and I will give it all I can.”

Riise added: “We are very fortunate to be able to call on a goalkeeper of Carly’s pedigree. Losing Karen was a blow of course but her selection was always a close-call with Carly, given they both have such strong reputations.

“Carly is a leader and she will be a big asset for us and what we are hoping to achieve.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in