Who is Fran Kirby, what was the injury which kept her out for a year and how did the Ballon D’Or nominee make history?
FRAN Kirby has been named on the shortlist for the first Women's Ballon D'Or award.
The Lioness is the only player from the Women's Super League and joins the likes of Lucy Bronze, Marta and Pernille Harder.
Who is Fran Kirby?
The 25-year-old is currently a Chelsea forward and Lioness star.
Kirby, who grew through the ranks at her hometown club Reading, made her first team debut at the age of 16 and during the 2014 season finished as the WSL2 top goalscorer.
She became the first second tier player to be awarded a place in the England senior squad for the World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Ukraine in 2014.
She made her international senior debut against Sweden scoring the second in a 4-0 win over the European side at Victoria Park in Hartlepool.
Kirby joined Chelsea for a fee which was reported between £40,000 and £60,000 but this was never confirmed by either clubs or the player.
During the 2015 season, Kirby made her debut coming off the bench against Birmingham - and scoring.
During that season, Chelsea lifted the Women's FA Cup beating Notts County in the final but Kirby was forced to sit out of the competition due to being cup tied.
Despite struggling with injury in recent years, Kirby has still impressed for both Chelsea and England helping her club to the semi-finals of the 2017-18 Uefa Champions League.
In the same season, Kirby helped the side win their second Super League title and scored in the final of the SSE Women's FA Cup at Wembley where the Blues beat Arsenal 3-1 in front of over 45,000 fans.
After the impressive season, she signed a new three-year deal with the Blues which will see her at the club until 2021.
Fran has been listed for the first ever women's Ballon D'Or in 2018.
What was the horrific injury which kept her out for a year?
Kirby suffered a horrible 12 months out of the game between 2016 and 2017 with back-to-back injuries and slow recoveries.
In May 2016, Kirby collided with a player in a 50/50 challenge and despite carrying on playing - and scoring in the game - she inevitably made the injury worse.
The Chelsea forward carried on playing through the injury for a number of weeks until the pain became so bad she could barely walk.
The scan confirmed that she had fractured her knee and she was put on injections, painkillers and rehab.
Despite the bad injury, Kirby was convinced she would be back in time for the start of the new season in six weeks time but she kept struggling with setbacks with treatment which included hydrotherapy, ultra-sound treatment and even magnetic therapy.
Alongside the knee injury, Kirby also found out she had bone edema which is really deep internal bruising.
This meant that she had to lay off from weights and cardio for eight months while she recovered.
Unfortunately, this only led to more problems and the weakness in her legs caused patella tendonitis.
Eleven months after the original injury, Kirby began full training but two days before the FA Cup semi-final, she went over on her ankle while blocking a shot causing a grade three ligament tear.
Kirby finally made it back for Chelsea for the final five games of the season in May 2017, scoring six goals and she was named in the England squad for the European Championships in the Netherlands.
What has she won and how did the Chelsea star make history?
Kirby topped off an impressive 2017/18 season after winning both the WSL title and the FA Cup with a number of individual honours.
She was named in the PFA Team of the Year and the Uefa Champions League squad of the season as well as Chelsea Ladies' Player of the Year and Players' Player of the Year.
Kirby's other awards from last season include the PFA Player of the Year and she also made history by become the first to win the female FWA Player of the Year.