EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Mayling is "a brilliant person and a brilliant player”

Speaking exclusively to For Fox Sake, Hudson-Jones highlighted the qualities that her former Aston Villa team-mate possesses.

“She’s a brilliant person and a brilliant player,” said Hudson-Jones, who played for Leicester from 2008-2011.

“She’s very versatile - you could play her in any position and she’d do a wonderful job. For this Leicester team, it adds to that versatility.

“She’s got an amazing ability on the ball, she reads the game extremely well, and with the ball at her feet she can cause a lot of damage. Defensively, she’s a great one-vs-one defender but when she gets the ball, she makes very good use of it.

“She’s a great asset, a great person, [and she is] fitter than most players I’ve ever played with. In that position, it’s someone that’s never going to get tired, can last 90 minutes plus but still have the quality.”

Leicester have also signed Swedish midfielder Emma Jansson on a permanent deal from FC Rosengård. Hudson-Jones spent a year playing in Scandinavian football for Åland United in the Finnish top-flight, and believes that Jansson will have no problem adapting to the English game.

“It [English and Scandinavian football] is very similar. There’s a massive push on the fundamentals in Scandinavia: technical ability, physicality – you need to be as strong as possible and as fit as you can be.

“But it’s about getting the ball on the floor and playing nice intricate football and building from the back. Being in midfield, she will come in and be that really strong link between the defensive line and the attacking line. Leicester have got a great squad, but she’ll be an asset to be that midfielder that really creates those links.”

Chloe Hudson-Jones was speaking exclusively to Lily Saunders on For Fox Sake – The Women’s Football Show.