Manchester City without Khadija Shaw for key Paris clash after visa bungle

Manchester City’s failure to file a visa application means Khadija Shaw is not in their squad for Wednesday night’s Champions League qualifier at Paris FC.

Shaw has not travelled to France for the first leg of the round two qualifying match despite late attempts to secure a visa. The Guardian has been told the Jamaica forward was sent to the French embassy on Tuesday morning but the request for an expedited application was refused. City denied Shaw had been asked to try to get a late visa and are understood to be confident there will be no future issues.

City have failed to qualify for the Champions League group stage for the past three seasons. In 2022-23 they finished fourth in the Women’s Super League, outside the qualifying positions, and in the other two seasons they crashed out in the qualifying rounds to Real Madrid.

The absence of the influential Shaw will probably be keenly felt, despite the arrival of Vivianne Miedema from Arsenal, with Paris FC no easy team to get past. They eliminated Arsenal and Wolfsburg to reach the group stage last season, where they finished third, ahead of Real Madrid, in Group D. Paris secured two wins over Madrid and scored in losses at home to Häcken and at Chelsea.

Shaw was the top scorer in the WSL last season, with 21 goals in 18 games. That matched Sam Kerr’s tally in the 2021-22 campaign and has been bettered only by Miedema’s 22 goals in 2018-19 and Rachel Daly’s 22 in the 2022-23 season. Shaw was named WSL player of the season, the Professional Footballers’ Association’s women’s footballer of the year and the Football Writers’ Association’s women’s footballer of the year.