Rachel Daly feels the calendar within the ladies’s sport must be checked out, describing the quantity of video games as “excessive”.
England boss Sarina Wiegman final week mentioned the matter was one thing she was “very worried” about as she named her squad for matches in opposition to Scotland at dwelling on Friday and the Netherlands away 4 days later within the inaugural Women’s Nations League.
The Lionesses’ World Cup marketing campaign concluded with the ultimate on August 20, and there have been Champions League qualifying fixtures since then.
Daly informed a press convention: “I do think the calendar is something that does need to be addressed moving forward.
“You’ve seen a significant amount of injuries in the past year or so, which you can only think may be a part of the calendar and the excessive amount of games we have during the season, especially the girls playing in the Champions League as well.
“I do think it needs to be looked at and addressed in the future. But as of right now, we’re not in a position to minimise game time we’ve got, so we just have to tackle it head on right now and put ourselves in the best position physically and mentally to play.
“We’ve got to get straight back into it, with our clubs, internationally, and we’re all just ready to go again and focus on the upcoming Nations League.”
On the method of making an attempt to get again to normality after what was the Lionesses’ first World Cup closing, and noticed Wiegman’s European champions overwhelmed 1-0 by Spain, Daly mentioned: “Probably the fact it wasn’t in our home country deterred a little bit of the emotion.
“I’ve bumped into people in the street who say how proud they are, it’s a nice feeling. Everyone knows we’re disappointed with how it turned out but we made the nation proud once again and that’s what we want to do.
“Everyone deals with it a little bit different. But here we are back at it again!”
England open their Group A1 matches within the new competitors – by way of which they will safe Paris 2024 Olympics qualification for Great Britain – with a visit to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light to play a Scotland outfit whose dispute with their nationwide affiliation was resolved final week.
The group, captained by Daly’s Aston Villa team-mate Rachel Corsie, withdrew authorized motion in opposition to the Scottish Football Association over equal pay and therapy claims having secured what the centre-back described as “parity”.
Asked about that – in addition to the saga involving the Spain group since their World Cup triumph – Daly mentioned: “I think trust and open, honest conversations with federations is something that is massive in terms of growing the women’s game.
“For us as players and people we are always trying to strive for better and what’s right, not just for the players involved right now, but for the next generation and future for years to come.
“To have that platform is something I think probably gets overlooked, but it’s a place that you need to get to in order to petition for more, and what’s right and what we deserve.”
England’s gamers themselves are concerned in an ongoing bonus funds dispute with the Football Association, and Daly mentioned: “We parked that for the World Cup.
“I think people concerned of distractions – there were absolutely no distractions for us at the World Cup, and those conversations were parked.
“We have a great team in place to take those discussions further and I think we’re in a really positive place to achieve an outcome.
“We all want the same thing, the federation and the players want to come to the same agreement. The leadership group and the players that put themselves in front of those meetings are fantastic and do a great job, so I think we’re in a great place.”
