SCOTLAND'S record goalscorer Julie Fleeting is poised to make a dramatic return to the national teamanna signeul
more than 18 years after winning her first cap.
The 34-year-old, who has two young daughters, has been added to the list of players for this weekend's Scotland training camp and coach, Anna Signeul, says the striker could feature in the 2017 European Championship qualifiers later this year.
"If Julie gets herself fully fit she will compete like everyone else for a place in the squad, but she is a special player and tactically very knowledgeable," Signeul said. "We want to give her every chance.
"It's tough to come back, that's for sure. Julie has been out for two major championship campaigns, which is more than three years without international football, but she is determined to do it.
"It's now about her physique. If she can get the intensity and speed back she is definitely going to be an asset in the squad. The key for her is to stay injury-free.
"She is a fantastic target player as well as a great finisher. We don't have a player like that in the squad, and have not had one since she was last in the side."
Fleeting was just 15 when she made her Scotland debut against Wales in 1996, going on to score an incredible 116 goals in 120 appearances. The last of these came in her final match in 2011, enabling Scotland to beat Belgium 1-0 in a friendly at Falkirk Stadium.
Fleeting, whose husband is former Morton goalkeeper Colin Stewart, continued to play for Scotland after giving birth to her first child, Ella, in 2009. She was the first player to be given dispensation by the Scottish FA to take her baby to away matches, but has not played at international level since becoming pregnant with her second daughter, Sophia Jane, who was born in 2012.
Fleeting, whose previous clubs include San Diego Spirit and Arsenal, joined Celtic from Kilwinning Ladies in July 2013. The Parkhead club have lost several prominent players over the winter, and Fleeting is understood to be considering a move to another club.
Signeul said that Fleeting will come into her plans for the Cyprus Cup tournament in March and also the Euro 2017 qualifiers later this year if she proves her fitness. The last time she was involved with the national team was as a Radio Scotland pundit during the 2015 World Cup qualifiers.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article