Fran Kirby forced to withdraw from Lionesses squad amid Emma Hayes warning
Chelsea attacker Fran Kirby has been forced to withdraw from the England squad after sustaining a minor injury in Friday evening's pre-match warm-up ahead of the Lionesses' 7-2 thrashing of Austria.
Kirby, 30, was named in Sarina Wiegman's starting XI but was replaced by Manchester United's Ella Toone after picking up a minor knee injury before kick-off in Spain. The extent of Kirby's injury was initially unclear though word from the England camp insisted that Kirby's withdrawal from the starting line-up was precautionary.
Kirby has suffered a spate of injuries and fitness issues in recent years and announced in May she go under the knife to fix a knee issue that had long plagued her, with doctors determining surgery was the only way to rectify the situation.
The surgery put an end to a 13-month late to return to competitive action for England.
However, the Lioness has since been forced to pull out of England's squad for the remainder of the international break with the midfielder set to return to Chelsea to receive further assessment on the knee injury.
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The timing of Kirby's withdrawal is striking, with Blues boss Emma Hayes recently issuing a stark warning to FIFA and UEFA about the concerning prevalence of knee and anterior cruciate ligament injuries sustained around international breaks.
Hayes, who will become the manager of four-time world champions USA at the end of the current season, called on football's governing bodies to look at injury analysis research which shows that “the vast majority [of ACL injuries] come within 10 days of changes from international breaks to club, or from club competition to international breaks.”
She added: "It's not as simple as saying that different teams have a different training load or travelling schedule, or recoveries etc. We need to really reflect on what we do.
“If you want to do a piece of research, go back through all those major injuries and how quickly they coincided with big changes, combined with menstrual stuff, training, pitches etc. That's just my opinion. There's a lot of work still to do."
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Fran Kirby has been an important part of Chelsea's success this season (Photo by Franco Arland/Getty Images)Hayes' worries were echoed by Kirby's international teammate Beth Mead, who suffered an ACL injury towards the back end of 2022 shortly after returning to Arsenal following an international break with the Lionesses.
"It's funny how much knowledge you actually get throughout [ACL injury recovery],” Mead said as part of an ongoing documentary charting her road to recovery alongside team-mate and partner Vivianne Miedema. “I saw [ Chelsea manager] Emma Hayes' interview and I thought it was interesting what she said about the 10 days between swapping from club and country.
"Mine was actually in that period. I'd just come back from England and transferred to club that weekend. I do believe the stress, mental components and the scheduling are big, big factors that affect this injury."
Kirby has been an influential part of Chelsea's success this season and any potential injury to the creative playmaker will represent a major blow to the Blues as they continue to compete on all fronts.
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