Jill Scott: Manchester City Women player banned for headbutt

Manchester City midfielder Jill Scott will serve a three-match ban following her headbutt in Sunday's 1-0 defeat by Arsenal.

Scott, 28, was shown a red card after reacting to a challenge by Gunners defender Jade Bailey in the Women's Super League One match.

The England player will now not play a competitive match before this summer's World Cup, which starts on 6 June.

She will miss City's FA Women's Cup semi-final versus Chelsea on 4 May.

Scott is also ruled out of league fixtures against Liverpool and Chelsea.

England, who are expected to name their squad on 11 May, will have her available for a friendly against World Cup hosts Canada on 29 May.

Scott earlier tweeted:, external "I want to apologise for the incident which led to me being sent off. Gutted to let everyone @MCWFC down."

City manager Nick Cushing said the incident was "out of character".

"She's been an exceptional player for us and she puts in unbelievable performances every week so it's disappointing," he said.

"We'll get together as a club and deal with it internally."

England manager Mark Sampson told BBC Radio 5 live: "It's an incident that no-one is proud of and it's disappointing.

"We don't like to see our players behave like that but credit to Jill, she has apologised and made it clear it was an out-of-character incident.

"The players are under lots of pressure but they have to make sure they behave in a manner that befits the England jersey."

Arsenal had taken the lead in the first half when Chioma Ubogagu slipped the ball under City keeper Alex Brooks.

Cushing said being reduced to 10 players hindered his side's chances of getting back into the match.

"We started the second half well, we looked like we were really pushing, but the red card was an own goal," he added.

"This team has an unbelievable work ethic and sometimes enthusiasm takes over intelligence."

Scott's red card comes three weeks after City team-mate Karen Bardsley exchanged punches with Birmingham's forward Freda Ayisi, resulting in the goalkeeper receiving a three-match ban from the Football Association.

Cushing says the recent disciplinary problems are disappointing.

"As a club we want people to watch and then come back so these sort of incidents go against that and leaves a bitter taste in our mouths."