England boss Sarina Wiegman last week said the matter was something she was “very worried” about as she named her squad for matches against Scotland at home on Friday and the Netherlands away four days later in the inaugural Women’s Nations League.
The Lionesses’ World Cup campaign concluded with the final on August 20, and there have been Champions League qualifying fixtures since then.
Daly told a press conference: “I do think the calendar is something that does need to be addressed moving forward.
“You’ve seen a significant amount of injuries in the past year or so, which you can only think may be a part of the calendar and the excessive amount of games we have during the season, especially the girls playing in the Champions League as well.
“I do think it needs to be looked at and addressed in the future. But as of right now, we’re not in a position to minimise game time we’ve got, so we just have to tackle it head on right now and put ourselves in the best position physically and mentally to play.
“We’ve got to get straight back into it, with our clubs, internationally, and we’re all just ready to go again and focus on the upcoming Nations League.”
On the process of trying to get back to normality after what was the Lionesses’ first World Cup final, and saw Wiegman’s European champions beaten 1-0 by Spain, Daly said: “Probably the fact it wasn’t in our home country deterred a little bit of the emotion.
“I’ve bumped into people in the street who say how proud they are, it’s a nice feeling. Everyone knows we’re disappointed with how it turned out but we made the nation proud once again and that’s what we want to do.
“Everyone deals with it a little bit different. But here we are back at it again!”
England open their Group A1 matches in the new competition – via which they can secure Paris 2024 Olympics qualification for Great Britain – with a trip to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light to play a Scotland outfit whose dispute with their national association was resolved last week.
The team, captained by Daly’s Aston Villa team-mate Rachel Corsie, withdrew legal action against the Scottish Football Association over equal pay and treatment claims having secured what the centre-back described as “parity”.
Asked about that – as well as the saga involving the Spain team since their World Cup triumph – Daly said: “I think trust and open, honest conversations with federations is something that is massive in terms of growing the women’s game.
“For us as players and people we are always trying to strive for better and what’s right, not just for the players involved right now, but for the next generation and future for years to come.
“To have that platform is something I think probably gets overlooked, but it’s a place that you need to get to in order to petition for more, and what’s right and what we deserve.”
England’s players themselves are involved in an ongoing bonus payments dispute with the Football Association, and Daly said: “We parked that for the World Cup.
“I think people concerned of distractions – there were absolutely no distractions for us at the World Cup, and those conversations were parked.
“We have a great team in place to take those discussions further and I think we’re in a really positive place to achieve an outcome.
“We all want the same thing, the federation and the players want to come to the same agreement. The leadership group and the players that put themselves in front of those meetings are fantastic and do a great job, so I think we’re in a great place.”
Daly’s Lionesses team-mate Lauren James and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka have been named as the PFA young players of the year in the awards voted for by their peers.
Daly and James were key performers for England in their run to the World Cup final earlier this month, but the accolades they received at the PFA’s 50th anniversary awards event in Salford are based on their performances last season.
Saka was voted the men’s Young Player of the Year after a terrific season for club and country, while a star of the club’s past, Ian Wright, picked up the men’s PFA Merit award.
Jill Scott, who won 161 caps for England and retired after the Lionesses won the Euros last summer, received the women’s Merit award.
Daly’s victory in the senior women’s player category came after she hit 22 goals in the Women’s Super League for Aston Villa last season – a remarkable achievement for a player who featured at left-back in the Lionesses’ successful Euros campaign last summer.
The 31-year-old from Harrogate saw off competition from five other illustrious WSL names on the nominees list – Sam Kerr, Frida Maanum, Guro Reiten, Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw and Ona Batlle.
James, who featured in the World Cup final as a substitute after a red card in the last 16 against Nigeria meant she was suspended for the quarter-final and semi-final, was a key player for Chelsea as they won the domestic double.
Haaland enjoyed a stunning debut season for Manchester City, hitting 52 goals in all competitions as they won the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League treble last season.
The 23-year-old was voted as the Premier League’s top player, seeing off competition from his team-mates John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne, as well as from Arsenal duo Saka and Martin Odegaard and former Tottenham striker Harry Kane, now at Bayern Munich.
Saka secured the young player prize after enjoying his finest season to date, scoring 14 goals for the Gunners and contributing 11 assists.
He was also one of England’s star performers at the World Cup in Qatar last winter.
Wright’s career in football was recognised with the Merit award. The 59-year-old, who starred as a striker for Arsenal, Crystal Palace and England, is now a popular broadcaster for the BBC and ITV.
Wright has become a vocal ally for the women’s game and also campaigns against discrimination within the sport. He became an OBE for services to football and charity in the King’s Birthday Honours in June.
Scott received the women’s merit award in recognition of a stellar career at club and international level. The 36-year-old played for Sunderland, Everton and Manchester City between 2004 and 2022. As well as her England caps, she also featured for Team GB at London 2012 and again in Tokyo in the summer of 2021.
To mark the awards reaching a half-century, the PFA also handed out individual player prizes for the Championship, League One and League Two for the first time.
Chuba Akpom was voted as the second tier’s top player, after top scoring with 28 goals for Middlesbrough. His fine form at Boro earned him a summer move to Dutch side Ajax.
Conor Chaplin, whose 26 goals spearheaded Ipswich’s promotion push from League One, won that division’s award, while Bradford’s Andy Cook was League Two’s Players’ Player of the Year.
The 32-year-old Aston Villa forward won 84 senior caps for England and scored 16 goals for the national team.
Daly was part of the Lionesses’ European Championship-winning side in 2022, where she started every game in the tournament.
“I would love nothing more than to play for England forever, but the time has come for me to hang my boots up on the international stage,” she posted on Instagram.
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“While today is an extremely difficult day for me, it is also one filled with reflection and immense gratitude. Playing for and representing England has been the greatest honour.
“During my eight years as a Lioness, I’ve always pursued success and winning football matches, while playing and training with the highest standards of competition, passion and perseverance.
“It has been the greatest honour to represent my family, my team-mates and the entire country. I have a lot of incredible memories during my time with England that have been pivotal moments.
“Winning the EUROs and then reaching the World Cup Final changed a lot for me, not only as a footballer but as a person. I’m so fortunate that I’ve been able to share that with so many remarkable people throughout my journey.
“I have made special friendships that will last a lifetime. I will be eternally grateful to have been given the opportunity to wear the England badge with immense pride over the past eight years.
“I am very fortunate to have played a small part in making history with the Lionesses and I feel now is the right time to pass on that baton to the next generation and be England’s number one fan from the stands!”
Four days on from the 7-2 defeat of Austria at the Estadio Nuevo Mirador in Algeciras, another thumping victory for the Lionesses at the same venue began with Lotte Wubben-Moy heading her first international goal in the opening minute.
Lauren Hemp extended the lead with a brace, the second via an excellent header, and after Michela Cambiaghi pulled a goal back for Italy in stoppage time at the end of the first half, substitutes Ella Toone and Rachel Daly completed the rout in the second half.
Boss Wiegman told ITV: “I think the whole camp, a lot of things pleased me.
“I think we had the opportunity to play many players…see what the level was, that was exactly what we wanted, see players in some positions and the connections between players, and then the competition.
“And when you have then such good wins as we had tonight and last Friday, that’s really nice too of course.”
Next up for England are the opening Euro 2025 qualifiers in April as Wiegman’s side begin the journey of defending the title they won on home soil in 2022.
When asked if the camp had given her the answers she needed ahead of the matches in April, Wiegman said: “You never know, because things in football can change so quickly, but it gave us many answers on questions we had at this moment.
“We could take this opportunity to see so many players and play two very good games, train also, see the under-23s (who joined the senior team on the trip). So just very many positives about this week.”
Those positives for Wiegman – who saw Leah Williamson withdraw from her original squad due to injury and Fran Kirby do so between the two matches – included debuts being made by 20-year-old Grace Clinton, a goalscorer in the Austria match, and Millie Turner introduced as a substitute against Italy.
On Arsenal defender Wubben-Moy, after her 12th senior appearance for the team, Wiegman said: “I think she’s definitely taken a step forward because she’s developing a lot and very good.
“That’s what we see weekly at Arsenal and that’s what she shows here too. What you can (also) see is the competition in the position is just really high.”
Wubben-Moy heading in from an Alex Greenwood delivery was an early example as England – on a night that saw them also make some notable errors at the back – demonstrated the problems they can cause from corners.
Wiegman added: “We are always working on it. We had a little more emphasis on it, we had a little more time this week.
“So it’s really good to see that it had so much effect and hopefully we can do that again in the following games.”
