HAyley Raso is back in Australia for the first time in a long time. “Seventeen months,” she says. Strict restrictions on Covid-19’s borders from his homeland had excluded the rest of the world and the Manchester City winger with him.

Now she’s finally settled in Sydney, and yet still separated from her family, this time thanks to the inflexible Queensland border closure that has prevented them from traveling from the Gold Coast to watch the Matildas’ friendly two-game series with United States. “Only my father can come,” she says, “because he lives in northern New South Wales. “

Thus, Raso made his first international appearance on Saturday since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics – a crushing 3-0 loss to the world champions – while his mother, grandmother and siblings watched on TV from the same way they do the Women’s Super League at silly hours of the night in the Southern Hemisphere.

Much like his return home, the minutes off the bench had been long in coming. If 17 months is a long time in life, two months can seem like a lifetime in football. Raso had barely signed for City from Everton when she suffered a shoulder injury, effectively ruling out the 27-year-old for the club’s so far soggy first part of the season.

“I just got back, so it was a bit of a rusty start to finding my bearings,” she says. “But I have done it now.”

She has indeed, up to two goals and an assist in City’s 5-0 rout against Aston Villa before the international window, a result that at least momentarily relieves the pressure on manager Gareth Taylor. Even so, the runner-up from last season now seems like a fantasy.

“I think he’s a very good coach,” said Raso. “He’s making the most of the players and going through a bit of a rough patch right now, but I’m sure it will clear up. The victory was beautiful and I hope we can continue in this direction.

Raso is not a great talker; There is a quiet durability to the Brisbane product that has served it well during the toughest times.

The biggest happened in 2018 when she fractured three vertebrae while playing for NWSL team Portland Thorns. During a long hospital stay, she learned to walk again and then played for Australia at the 2019 World Cup.

Long before that, however, she was the youngest of three siblings raised by a single mother who looked after her older brother around the clock. “Jordan is intellectually disabled,” Raso says, adding that it can be difficult to keep in touch with him abroad. “I don’t talk to him much unless he’s with my mom or dad.”

Jordan often visits his family from the group home he moved into a few years ago, although Raso concedes that the complications associated with his condition have been difficult for him and his entire family.

His other brother Lachlan, the last piece of the childhood football triumvirate and now a civil engineer, was born with congenital heart disease and in 2015 underwent open heart surgery. At the time, Raso was in the United States under contract with Washington Spirit and wanted to return home; Lachlan convinced her to stay so he could watch her play while he recovered.

“The whole concept of the book – and 50% of the profit from sales goes HeartKids – it’s for him and for my family, ”she said. The “book” is of the youth genre, a project in vogue for professional footballers but also a project which generally offers nuggets of truth about their subjects. Raso’s is called Hayley’s Ribbon, a story that goes like this: “Football gave Hayley the freedom when she could relax and play. She felt her shyness hold her back and wished it was gone.

And so on, until nan presents “the magic of the ribbon,” a shimmering symbol of strength and enlightenment on the pitch. In real life, nan’s name is Patricia, and she associates ribbons with each of Raso’s kits. For the Matildas they are yellow, for City sky blue. The gesture is so simple that it is practically pure.

“I’m kind of known for it now and it’s become my hallmark,” she says. “I called my grandmother and told her about it and read part of it to her. She cried; it was so sweet.

Raso, at least on the pitch, is not that nice. On the ball, she’s aggressive, unafraid of taking on opponents – as a teenager she lost her front teeth in a head-on collision while playing touch football – and most often comes out the winner.

“I would like to say that I have evolved since being in the UK because the level is so high,” she says. “Training week after week with some of the best players in the world at City will only help.”

The two-year contract means Raso, who will likely win his 58th cap against the United States in Newcastle on Tuesday, will continue to play alongside a good chunk of the England squad and Australian teammate Alanna Kennedy.

“It’s a huge club and a place I want to be,” she says. “I want to compete for trophies and play Champions League football… what I love about European football is you have a good season and then breaks. When I played in the NWSL and the W-League, I just went back to back and never let my body rest.

Get to know the English elite better with our WSL player in focus series. Read all of our interviews here.