Schedule must change for player safety
Manchester City forward Vivianne Miedema has criticised the women's football schedule, and called for those in charge of the calendar to make changes prioritising "players' physical and mental safety".The 28-year-old is having rehabilitation after suffering a potentially season-ending hamstring injury while on international duty for the Netherlands at the beginning of April.Earlier this season she was sidelined for more than three months with a knee injury, while in her final two seasons at Arsenal she only made eight Women's Super League (WSL) appearances after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her left knee in December 2022.Writing on Instagram, Miedema said: "It took me a couple of days to get my head around being injured again and to find the needed motivation to start rehab."I've been really impatient and I want it to go quicker, but maybe that's because I finally felt like myself again out there and I enjoyed being on the pitch even though games come quick and hard."I will say this over and over again. To the people in charge of the football calendar, it is time to realise the current schedule will need to change for players' physical and mental safety."
Miedema's Manchester City have been immersed in the busy schedule of late, playing eight matches in 29 days throughout March as they competed in four competitions.She featured in all eight before sustaining her injury during the Netherlands' Women's Nations League match with Austria on 8 April, having also played for the national side four days earlier. Including Miedema, manager Nick Cushing's side have nine first-team players out injured or, in the cases of Alex Greenwood and Lauren Hemp, only recently returning to training following long-term absences. However, concerns about the schedule and player safety are not restricted to Manchester City. In April 2024, players' union Fifpro and the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) launched a collaboration with Leeds Beckett University to accelerate research into reducing ACL injuries in women's football. ACL injuries are two to six times more likely to occur in women than men, and about two-thirds of them in women's football happen when there is no physical contact. However, there is limited understanding of how to reduce their frequency in the professional game. Last July, meanwhile, Fifpro, together with top European leagues, launched legal action against world governing body Fifa over its "abuse of dominance" in the game. They filed a complaint to the European Commission to protect player welfare following pressure from leagues and player unions over the number of matches added to the calendar.
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