Saturday, August 23, 2008 - 3:49 PM

Penny Taylor will join the Opals in tonight's gold medal match against the United States in the women's basketball in Beijing.

Taylor has been under an injury cloud since straining a ligament in her right ankle in a match against the Czech Republic on Tuesday night.

She stayed on the bench during the Opals' quarter-final win over China on Thursday night.

But coach Jan Stirling says Taylor says she is now ready to play for gold against the United States.

"She's trained today," she said. "Got through the training session. Definitely (she'll) play tonight."

Stirling says the experience of having had a question mark over Taylor's fitness has benefitted the team's preparation for the crucial game.

"That negative of not having her has turned into a positive," she said.

"The team are really united and understand that all of us will need to play well to get over the line."

Stirling says Taylor trained this morning and will take to the court even though she is not quite up to speed.

"If you look at our game against China we played a very scary semi-final against the host nation without Penny Taylor and everyone else came and chipped in so we certainly know we got the depth," she added.