Everton Women manager Willie Kirk says Nicoline Sørensen is remaining positive after it was confirmed the forward had suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament injury.

The 24-year-old is unlikely to play again this season after picking up the injury during Saturday’s 3-1 win over Birmingham City.

Kirk confirmed on Friday that the Denmark international will undergo surgery and begin a lengthy road to recovery.

However, despite the setback, the Blues boss says Sørensen is staying upbeat.

“Obviously getting that diagnosis isn’t great for anybody,” Kirk told the media in his pre-match press conference.

“When you finally get the news when the scan comes back, you know exactly the ins and outs of it and you get told it’s a ruptured ACL, it’s never good news.

“She’s dealt with it very maturely, very positively.

“I had a good chat with her today in my office and I said we would support her in any way we can and make sure she comes back bigger, better, stronger and more tactically aware.

“We’ve already spoken about how we can continue to develop her over the length of the rehab, because it is a lengthy rehab.

“She’s got targets already.

“Without a doubt she’ll come back but it’s a blow to her and it’s a blow to us as a team.”

Kirk added that questions remain on what Sørensen's recovery plan will look like but confirmed that will be decided in the coming days.

“First of all, it was about making sure we got the scan at the right time,” he added.

“If there’s still too much swelling then you might not pick up some other damage, but we were quite happy with what the scan has come back with.

“The swelling went down really quickly.

“Her knee has reacted really positively to it considering the damage that’s been done.

“She is a quick healer.

“The next couple of days is about putting a real robust plan in place.

“How much work do we do before the operation and then what’s the plan for after it?

“Where does she get it (the operation), what specialist does she see, who performs the operation, where does she do the first part of her rehab, at what point does she go home, does she even get the operation in Denmark, does she get it in London?

“There’s so many things to talk about but it’s about getting a real robust plan in place and then just making sure we get as much care and support around her as possible.

“And just making sure we understand the implications and the knock-on effect to all other staff and how we structure that rehab.

“Not just for Nico, but how we fill the void because it’s quite a lengthy process for the physios and the physical performance coaches.

“There’s a lot of planning to go on and most of that will happen in the next couple of days.”

Everton will travel without their number 14 this weekend when they face Reading in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League on Sunday afternoon (2pm BST).