![\"Leah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_GettyImages-2262495265.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLionesses star Leah Williamson has spoken out on the prospect of players striking should organisers continually ignore appeals over playing schedules in the women\u2019s game<\/p>\n
Leah Williamson has been called into the latest England squad(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Lionesses and Arsenal<\/a> star Leah Williamson<\/a> has refused to rule out the prospect of strike action in the face of energy-sapping fixture schedules. WSL stars have regularly campaigned for action from the authorities to cut down on serious injuries.<\/p>\n The FA<\/a> have attempted to reduce the load by handing players a 10-day break ahead of this month\u2019s World Cup qualifier vs Ukraine<\/a>. But Williamson, who has suffered two serious knee injuries in the past three years, believes more could be done.<\/p>\n Speaking to Sky Sports<\/a>, she said: “Not that many of us, if any, have a scientific background or real expertise in it other than experience, so what we can do is say how we feel and the toll it’s taken on us. Offer up our data, like the training loads, female health.<\/p>\n “We’re quite forthcoming with giving that to people so that they can make more educated decisions for us but it’s mainly around the rest periods and trying to get all governing bodies to align. I said it always sounds like we’re asking for holiday and that’s not the case. I’m a professional footballer and part of my job is also to rest which I’m encouraged to do by my managers, by the environments that we play in. So then why is that not prioritised when we’re left to our own devices?<\/p>\n MAKE THE MIRROR YOUR FIRST CHOICE!<\/strong> Click here to activate<\/strong> <\/a>or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n “It’s always there as a possibility [taking drastic action]. Like I said, we all want to play football, nobody wants any games, years, seasons to be taken away from them, tournaments especially.<\/p>\n “But across men’s and women’s football, the possibility for growth in the game never seems to end and the money that’s on the table for everybody involved will benefit from that too.<\/p>\n “There has to be a balance and I would never rule out further action from the players because if it needed to happen for people to protect themselves, I wouldn’t blame anybody. I’ve not had any conversations about this [going on strike] right now.<\/p>\n Leah Williamson has addressed the prospect of WSL players striking(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n FOLLOW OUR ARSENAL FB PAGE!<\/strong> Latest Gunners news and more on our dedicated Facebook page<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n “If a group of people doesn’t feel like they’re getting listened to then history suggests that that’s the only way sometimes they can be heard. I’d never rule it out or take it off the table.<\/p>\n I just don’t think that’s where we are now. We’re still in a phase where we can all collaborate and listen and educate.\u201d<\/p>\n Williamson has so far made 64 appearances for the Lionesses<\/a> during her career, having helped the side to back-to-back Euros in 2022 and 2025. The defender also won the Women\u2019s Super League in 2019 with Arsenal<\/a>.<\/p>\n Join our new WhatsApp community<\/a> and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football<\/strong> content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us – and our partners. If you don’t like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you’re curious, you can read our Privacy Notice<\/a>.<\/p>\n Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionesses star Leah Williamson has spoken out on the prospect of players striking should organisers continually ignore appeals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5008],"tags":[6167,748,393,12632,4884,18996,16,15],"class_list":["post-786724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-england","tag-arsenal-fc","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-england-football-team","tag-great-britain","tag-the-fa","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116127951616251284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Leah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_GettyImages-2261224130.jpg\")
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