By Alexis Monteith/Contributor

Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw attended the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) Awards on Thursday night (May 16, 2024) to collect her FWA Women’s Footballer of the Year award two weeks after it was announced that she had won the coveted prize.

Speaking in an interview following the ceremony, the Jamaican striker revealed that her recent foot injury could be healed in time for the start of the 2024/2025 football season.

“I should be back for next season [for] which I am happy,” Shaw said. “You don’t want to choose when you get injured, but if I’m being honest, looking back I think it is for the best, knowing that I will be back in time for when next season starts. I am at least taking the positive from that, and throughout this summer I am going to work tremendously hard to know that when the season starts I am ready to go.”

The Manchester City Women footballer scored 21 goals and made three assists in just 18 Women’s Super League appearances this season, playing a key role in her club’s title challenge. The team is level on points with league leaders Chelsea but two goals short on goal difference with one game left to play.

With her impressive goal tally, Shaw leads the race for the WSL Golden Boot and is still likely to win it, even though injury forced her out of the past two games and the upcoming title decider on Saturday.

The Jamaican conceded that being a spectator for the critical game on the weekend will be more stressful than playing alongside her teammates..

“Definitely more nervous watching,” Shaw said. “I used to always hear my family say it’s difficult watching, but now I’m on the side, I see why. I can totally agree. But like I said, once we do our best hopefully our best is good enough at the end of the day.”

Commenting on the fact that Manchester City’s men’s and women’s teams are competing in title deciders this weekend and it would be a “double” if they are both successful, Shaw said “that’s something that we spoke about at the beginning of the season, that we want to do the best that we can.”

“Obviously the club does a lot for us, so we want to compete and win as many titles as we can, as well,” she continued. “You know we look up to the men. Of course, they are doing tremendously. So I think we get our inspiration from them and we keep pushing likewise and hopefully we can have the double at the end of the season.”

Not only is Shaw the season’s leading goalscorer in the league. In January of this year she became Manchester City Women’s all-time record scorer in the WSL, breaking Georgia Stanway’s record of 39 WSL goals. Later, during the Manchester Derby in March, she again surpassed a Stanway record of 67 goals across all competitions to become the club’s all-time leading goalscorer.

Having scored 72 goals in all competitions, including 50 in the WSL since joining Manchester City Women in 2021, Shaw praised Head Coach Gareth Taylor, calling him “fantastic” for his work with her.

“I’ve definitely improved [in] my three years being here,” the striker said. “In the beginning it was difficult with the style of play and the way we play, but we’ve had conversations and we’ve watched videos and we’ve spent time on the training pitch and he (Taylor) was patient with me and he kept on encouraging me on days when things would have been difficult. And here I am now reaping the rewards. So, yes, I have a really good relationship with Gareth.”

The Jamaican international also recognised the role of her Man City teammates in her success over the past year.

“It’s been a good season,” she affirmed. “I’ve always said that the team makes me look good. I’m playing with world class players that make me look good at the end of the day. I just try to do the bits I can at the end of the pitch and work for the team and ultimately arrive at the end of the season winning stuff. So, here we are.”

The team will go into its monumental final game against Aston Villa on Saturday without their star Jamaican striker. If Chelsea beat Manchester United in the other key encounter, City will not only have to beat Villa to go level on points with Chelsea again, they will have to find enough goals to overcome the Londoners’ current two goal advantage in goal difference.

In the last two games without Shaw, City put four unanswered goals past Bristol City but succumbed 2-1 to Arsenal after taking an early lead.

This mixed success adds a nail-biting level of uncertainty for Manchester City fans going into the weekend. And this time Shaw will be watching the unfolding story like any other fan, rather than helping to write it.

In the meantime, she has less than 24 hours to focus on her recent Women’s Footballer of the Year award and what it means for her, her family, club, and country.

“My national teammates, coaches, friends, family, they have all supported me ever since I came to England and I try to do the best that I can to put Jamaica out there in football, where [instead] we are known for track and field,” Shaw said. “So now I’m here. I am trying to be a trailblazer for my country. They definitely support me and whenever I have that support I know that I have to just keep pushing, keep working hard and do the best that I can.”