Fran Kirby could call time on her playing career if she suffers another major setback.
Kirby, 29, is one of the most successful players in football’s history, a five-time Women’s Super League champion and Euro 2022 winner with England.
But she has faced major problems in recent years, diagnosed with pericarditis — a heart condition — in 2019. Then, after returning to full fitness, in February last year she was struck down with extreme fatigue.
Kirby made the revelation that she could stop playing during an interview in a new book by former Chelsea and Crystal Palace striker Millie Farrow, now at North Carolina Courage, called Brave Enough Not to Quit, highlighting the adversity footballers often face in their career.
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“I still think now I am a bit nervous about it happening again,” Kirby says. “I wouldn’t say I’m completely satisfied with the fact that I feel better now. It’s still always in the back of my mind.
“I’ve probably made a decision with myself that if it happens again, I will have to rethink, if I’m honest, because I can’t keep going through six months of feeling good, four months of feeling crap. It’s not a lifestyle. But I always say to myself, ‘Try one more time, do everything again, and see what happens.’”
She adds: “How much can you push yourself this time, how good can you be this year after last year? And I think I’ll be really content with myself if I have a year where I feel really satisfied with what I did.
“So, I think the competitiveness in me is ‘try one more time’ but I will get to the stage where I think ‘I can’t keep doing this.’ But it’s not just me. I can’t put my family through seeing me like that. I can’t put them through coming round my house and I’m laying on my sofa and I can’t move. I don’t want them to see me like that either. It’s everyone around you.”
Kirby cites Chelsea manager Emma Hayes as vital to helping her manage her health issues as well as working closely with the club doctor. At times, for example, she will finish training sessions early if necessary and goes to great lengths to look after her body away from the training ground.
“Me and Emma have built this relationship now where first of all she can tell when I’m ill, she can look at me and know I’m not well, and then I’ve got to a place now where I’m not willing to put my health on the line,” Kirby says.
“I’ve done that before and now I’ve got to a place where I want to – people will say it sounds dramatic but this is how I am – I want to be able to take my dog for a walk after I finish playing football, I want to be able to go to a gym and continue working out after football.”
Heskey: Players and coaches can be more open
Emile Heskey has called for more scientific research to be conducted into injuries in the women’s game.
Heskey, the former England and Liverpool striker who is now head of development for Leicester City Women, is concerned that not enough is known about the differences between the men’s and women’s game and how injuries can affect different genders.
Writing in her column for i in December, Chelsea defender Magdalena Eriksson warned “we have so much to improve on regarding knowledge of women’s bodies and loading”. She pointed out she had never worked with a fill-time physio before joining Chelsea and that only a handful of clubs had their resources.
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Research has found that women could be more than twice as likely to experience muscle and tendon injuries while on their period, and that they are up to six times more likely to suffer ACL knee injuries than men.
Speaking in an interview in Brave Enough Not to Quit, Heskey says: “It’s difficult for women. Injuries are so high in the women’s game. Has anyone done a study on why that is, has anyone done a study on what could prevent it?
“I don’t think there’s that much information about that at this moment in time.
“I think there should be. I watched one of our players do a session last season and I was looking at her and I said ‘are you okay?’ and she said ‘it’s just a women’s problem’ and I said ‘do you want to go in?’ and she said ‘no, I’ll be alright. Call the doc and give me some tablets and I’ll be fine.’ I don’t know what the pain is like but surely missing one day’s training is not going to hurt you?
“This player said says she knows her cycle and when is going to be the worst time and I was like, ‘Why don’t you just tell us and we can adjust everyone’s training accordingly?’ I’d rather a player missed training than be out for months.”
He adds: “That’s where the coaches have to be a bit more open. In one game, one of our players was sick but hadn’t said anything beforehand and I had to pull her off and make a sub, and I said, ‘You know what? You’ve got to tell me because I can only judge you on what I see on the pitch. I don’t know what’s going on with you. You should be telling me so I can protect you, because if you go on there and put on a shitty display, no one cares about the fact you are sick, no one knows you are sick anyway. They just look at the performance you’ve put in.’
“I think it’s a bit of both, the players need to tell and probably the coaches need to be a bit more open with it as well.”
Brave Enough Not to Quit, by Millie Farrow, with Kate Field, out 13th February from Pitch Publishing
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