Basics such as medical care and insurance are being left behind and players are paying with their careers in a growing game

When Crystal Palace forward Gemma Bryan took to social media last week out of exasperation at having been left “in limbo” by the club after she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in April, it caused a wave of disgruntlement.

Because, while there has been a drive towards professionalism in the women’s game – with the FA, sponsors and increasing support of clubs for their women’s teams leading the charge – player welfare has been neglected. And that is not OK.

Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action Read more

There are other areas of women’s football that have been left behind and are now playing catch-up with the demands of a professional game, refereeing being the most obvious, grassroots development being another. And, to a certain extent, one can forgive the uneven development that has taken place. It has taken time for the FA to build its women’s football staff to the point it is at now with a very genuine, if not always correct, group at the helm.

However, the protection of players should be, and should always have been, paramount.

It is only this season that Women’s Super League sides have been required to provide medical care for their players. In the semi-professional Championship, where Crystal Palace play, this entry demand will come into effect from only the 2020-21 season and be partially funded by the FA.

Yet this issue is not a new discovery. In October last year Emma Beckett, now at Watford, launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for three London Bees players, two of whom needed surgery on ACL injuries, all under the age of 25, with one having ruptured an ACL for the third time. During the crowdfunding campaign a fourth Bees player was added to the list of beneficiaries having also torn her ACL. The story is not uncommon.

While investment has gone into building the game, those actually responsible for the product on the pitch, that clubs and the FA are selling to broadcasters and sponsors, have been woefully unprotected and for years forced either to raise thousands of pounds to cover private treatment or to spend months on NHS waiting lists.

In addition the standard contracts issued by the FA do more to protect clubs from their injured players than to help players forced from the field, their place of work.

Last year the Danish newspaper Politiken, as part of the Football Leaks releases, showed that a clause in player contracts permits WSL clubs to offload players if an injury or illness sidelines them for more than three months, provided they give three months notice.

Where male footballers are afforded much greater protections should they suffer one of the most serious injuries that can be picked up on a pitch, with a lengthy recovery period that many say has a big impact on their mental health, a huge number of women footballers have little to no protection.

At the time it was made clear that, while it was unlikely that any of the larger WSL clubs would contemplate invoking the clause, it existed to protect less financially insulated teams.

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Last week an FA spokesperson said: “The Women’s Football Contract was designed and structured to meet the unique demands of the women’s football pyramid. It was developed in consultation between the FA, the clubs and the PFA to shape a player contract that the women’s football pyramid could financially sustain and one that reflects the recently emerging status of women’s professional football in England.

“It differs from men’s professional football, which is more established and better suited to accommodate the additional financial liability of long-term injuries to players. Medical standards are constantly improving and are under regular review to meet the future requirements of the women’s game. Any changes to the Women’s Football Contract will be made in collaboration between The FA, the Clubs and the PFA.”

Except surely there is an argument to say that, if a club cannot support even the most basic of insurance policies for its players, then its viability as a functioning and sustainable club in a professional or semi-professional league should be more thoroughly questioned?

Most employers, even the smallest, will have insurance policies that cover workplace injury and, in the case of footballers, it is an industry where the risk of injury is high. Player welfare should not be a choice or an afterthought. The quicker the FA and clubs move to rectify this abandonment of players who have been prone to accepting the bare minimum, such is the desire to play a sport that has neglected them for so long, the better. Too many have already found their careers and incomes stalled or ended as a result of the governing body and teams playing hardball with their health.

Talking points

• Manchester City’s injury problems deepened with the announcement that the 20-year-old forward Georgia Stanway will be out for six weeks with a hamstring injury. Stanway joins fellow forward Lauren Hemp and England’s World Cup top-scorer Ellen White on the sidelines.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Manchester City’s Georgia Stanway, left, faces six weeks out with a hamstring injury. Photograph: Malcolm Bryce/ProSports/Rex/Shutterstock

• The former Arsenal midfielder Heather O’Reilly is retiring at the end of the season and her ‘celebration match’ with North Carolina Courage went perfectly as they beat Orlando Pride 6-1. In front of a regular-season record attendance of 9,563, O’Reilly struck from distance in the 85th minute for North Carolina’s fifth.

• The Nigerian forward Osinachi Ohale has become the latest player to join CD Tacón, the club taken over by Real Madrid. The 27-year-old former Houston Dash defender spent last season with Sweden’s Växjö DFF.

• The NWSL team Sky Blue have switched their next fixture against Orlando Pride from Rutgers’ Yurcak Field to the Red Bull Arena following huge ticket demand.

• Alex Morgan has been ruled out of the rest of the NWSL season having suffered a patella stress reaction in her right knee that she picked up with USA at the World Cup.