Leah Williamson says the schedule is too much, why don’t people believe her?

It’s no secret that the women’s game is haunted by an injury epidemic – in particular a dreaded three-letter knee tear: the ACL. Hardly a season passes without an A-list star being ruled out for months. And although there are endless theories about why female footballers are more vulnerable, from biomechanics to hormones, one explanation keeps resurfacing: the schedule is becoming unsustainable.

We’re all aware that women's football has grown at extraordinary speed. Bigger crowds, bigger expectations and more competitions have transformed the sport into a year-round commitment. But as the game accelerates, the physical demands on players have intensified just as quickly. More matches mean less recovery and less recovery means a higher risk of injury and when England captain Leah Williamson spoke about fixture congestion and player welfare, the reaction online was predictable. Keyboard critics on Twitter were quick to point out that male players compete in more matches every season – as if the comparison alone settled the argument. But the reality of women’s football tells a very different story.

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Men’s teams operate with deep squads worth millions, allowing constant rotation without a drop in quality. And no one is suggesting the men’s game isn’t overworked too, for some players and clubs, three matches a week has become routine and clearly unsustainable. But the structures around the men’s game are built to manage that pressure, players grow up in elite academies from childhood, with strength programmes and medical support designed to prepare them for the physical demands of professional football. And by the time they debut for the first team, their bodies have been conditioned for years to withstand intense schedules. For many female players, that pathway simply did not exist. I’m 23, and I didn’t know football was a realistic career option for girls until I was 17 (not that I can even kick a ball straight). But that experience isn’t unusual – it’s typical of a generation who discovered the professional game late because it barely existed before. Many players now competing at the highest level came through systems that were still semi-professional with fewer resources and less long-term physical preparation. Now players who find themselves in top-flight football compete in domestic leagues, cup competitions, European tournaments and international duty that fill the calendar with little space for recovery. The game has accelerated faster than the structures needed to support it.

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Williamson understands this reality first-hand. After suffering an ACL injury in 2023, she has spoken about the demands placed on players and the importance of protecting athlete welfare as the sport continues to grow. Her concerns reflect a wider problem – not individual weakness, but a system asking too much, too quickly. Comparing women’s football directly to the men’s game misses the point. The issue is not who plays more matches, but who has the support, depth and lifelong preparation to handle them. Women’s football is still catching up in facilities, investment and development pathways, yet its players are already operating at full professional intensity.

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Looking at Arsenal for example, the scale of the modern workload becomes clear. Players this season have balanced Women's Super League matches alongside the Champions League, FA Cup and Subway Cup, while many have also represented their countries in major international tournaments such as the UEFA Women’s EURO and the Asian Cup. New competitions like the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup have added even more demands to an already crowded calendar. The contrast within the league is clear – some lower-table sides within the WSL play relatively limited schedules, while the same core group of elite players move almost continuously between club and international football with little time to recover. Even the English FA is beginning to acknowledge the pressure on elite players. From 2026–27, Champions League teams will no longer compete in the Subway Cup, an admission that the modern calendar has become too demanding.

But scheduling alone cannot explain the injury crisis. It’s encouraging to see FIFA, UEFA and the English FA backing research into why serious injuries are so common in the women’s game. Still, easy comparisons with men’s football miss the context. The modern calendar has arrived for a sport that was shut out for half a century and the consequences of that lost time are still visible in the structures players rely on today. Women’s football may now be operating at the same intensity, but it does not have the same foundations – and until the game fully catches up, that history will continue to matter.