Khiara Keating must make most of rare Man City opportunity to prove her England Lionesses credentials

It's been a weird ride to this point for Keating. After enjoying that excellent 2023-24 season, her game time would decrease the following year, though she did make 19 appearances in total, with Yamashita also playing 21 times. Amid that rotation, it felt like the errors in Keating's game stood out more. Perhaps it was coincidence, or perhaps it was because she didn't have that same sharpness, but either way, sloppy passes out from the back by the youngster proved costly in some high-profile moments.

This season, under new head coach Andree Jeglertz, Keating has found game time much harder to come by. Sunday's appearance at Villa was just her sixth for City this season, her third in the league and her first in the competition since September. While former boss Gareth Taylor was happy to rotate his goalkeepers, taking into account factors such as the opposition, Jeglertz has used Yamashita as his No.1 and Keating has been the back-up, with the Japan international and third-choice Eartha Cummings even starting a couple of cup games instead of Keating along the way.

It's why the 21-year-old, who was part of the Lionesses squad which won the European Championship last summer, was not called up by Sarina Wiegman for the latest England camp, instead dropping into the Under-23s for the March international break.

"Of course, we all know that she's a very talented goalkeeper, she's been in our environment a lot over the last years, but I have big concerns about her playing minutes," Wiegman explained.

For Keating to get the opportunity to play at the weekend, then, was huge, and that she is also set to start when Tottenham visit on Saturday is just as big. It's a small and rare window for the young goalkeeper, but it's a chance for her to remind Jeglertz, Wiegman and everyone else what she can do.

That's exactly what she did last weekend. Making three huge saves and keeping a clean sheet against a Villa side that registered an expected goals statistic of 1.57, superior to the 1.03 league leaders City managed, Keating's incredible reflexes and shot-stopping were on show in a big way.

Some looseness in possession was still there, as was some hesitancy in collecting crosses. But the former is always possible given City's philosophy as a club, with Yamashita no stranger to those moments either, and the latter is no surprise given Keating's limited game time. All in all, the core qualities that have made Keating a rising star were still there.

Keating needed to show that talent, too, because down the other end of the pitch was Ellie Roebuck, the 11-time England international who took her place in last month's Lionesses squad. The two were team-mates when Keating broke into the senior City side as a 17-year-old, until Roebuck left at the end of that 2023-24 season when the teenager had become No.1, having found herself out-of-favour under Taylor before suffering a type of stroke that made competing for the shirt seem trivial.

It's not been an easy road back for Roebuck, who spent time as a back-up at Barcelona before returning to England in the summer to sign for Villa. She's had to bide her time in the Midlands, battling for first-choice duties with Canada international Sabrina D'Angelo, but she's played five of the club's last six games and was another eye-catching performer in the goalless draw against City at the weekend.

If Roebuck wasn't in that place, Keating's minutes this month might have been enough to get her back into the Lionesses' picture, ahead of Wiegman naming her squad for April's Women's World Cup qualifiers in a couple of weeks' time. But with Hannah Hampton cemented as England's No.1 and Anna Moorhouse secure in her place in the squad thanks to regular game time with the Orlando Pride, it's not quite as simple now.

It will be a frustrating situation for those of a Lionesses persuasion who have an eye on the future. Moorhouse will celebrate her 31st birthday later this month, Roebuck is only just back playing regularly and is still locked into a close battle to keep those minutes and then, beyond that, there are not that many obvious options to provide depth behind Hampton in the goalkeeping position given Mary Earps' international retirement.

Keating was Wiegman's first-choice to play when Hampton was injured in October, too, granted a debut at the Etihad Stadium as England took on Brazil in what felt like a huge endorsement of her ability and her potential.

"She is a very talented player and has been with us a while," Wiegman said after handing Keating her first cap. "It was a hard start to the game, but I think she dealt really well with it. She didn't get many actions in the second half, but it's even harder for a goalkeeper to be there at the moments when she's needed, so that was good. She stayed calm and played out [from the back] when the opportunities were there. I think we can be happy with her debut."

But while it feels like Keating has the potential to build on that and be a stalwart of this England squad for many years to come, that can only be the case if she is playing regularly. Can she use her opportunities in Yamashita's absence to persuade Jeglertz to use her more often? Or can this perhaps act as a chance for the 21-year-old to put herself in the shop window, given she has just one more year on her City contract?

Either way, it's clear Keating needs to be playing regularly in order to develop further, iron out some of the kinks in her game and stay in that senior England picture. She's an extremely talented goalkeeper with a bright future, but she can only unlock that potential with more game time.