Daniëlle van de Donk said she had “never been more proud of myself” having recovering from a prolonged knee injury to make her long-awaited debut for London City Lionesses at the weekend, seven months after signing for the club.
Van de Donk had not played since starting her country’s final group match against France at Euro 2025 in July, a month after agreeing to join London City, newly promoted to the Women’s Super League, from OL Lyonnes. The 34-year-old former Arsenal player came on as a second-half substitute in London City’s 1-0 win at Sunderland in the Women’s FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, allowing her to finally put months of frustration behind her.
“I’ve never been more proud of myself,” said Van de Donk. “No one really knows what happened because that was my choice, but I had many setbacks and it wasn’t easy at all. But I’m even more proud and happy to be back.
“I really want to be on the pitch. Before [signing for the club] I was very much in debate if I could continue playing football and then this opportunity came around the corner and I was like: ‘OK, well, I can go 100% for that but it’s going to be very hard with my body to be able to do anything.’ But yes, I don’t know, it’s just like resilience or something.”
Victory at the Eppleton Colliery Welfare Ground was London City’s first under their new head coach, Eder Maestre. Speaking about Van de Donk’s return, he said: “I like seeing her enjoying playing football again. She is very talented with lots of experience and this [her debut] is like another win.”
The midfielder was playing in the FA Cup nearly 10 years after winning the competition with Arsenal and five years after leaving the club in order to move to France, where she went on to win the Champions League in 2022. “It [her London City debut] was super special,” said Van de Donk. “As soon as [I was] on the pitch, I’m just so happy.”
London City are seventh in the WSL after a goalless draw at Liverpool in Maestre’s first game in charge this month. Asked about her hopes for the second half of the campaign, Van de Donk said: “I feel like we’re part of a building team, and especially now we’re rebuilding again with a new coach, so we’re trying to adapt to his playing style and trying to learn from that. We just want to continue with what we’ve shown today and get better and better each game.”
The draw for the fifth round takes place on Monday evening and will be broadcast live on YouTube, TNT Sports and Channel 4 Sport.
