Chelsea head coach Emma Hayes has said she let herself down with comments on relationships between players and was wrong to use the term “inappropriate”.

Hayes said in a news conference on Thursday that player-coach relationships should be banned in the Women’s Super League and that player-player relationships were also “inappropriate”.

Chelsea defender Jess Carter, who is in a relationship with team-mate Ann-Katrin Berger, later liked a tweet claiming it was “beyond bonkers to bring player/player relationships into the conversation”.

Chelsea striker Sam Kerr announced her engagement with West Ham’s American midfielder Kristie Mewis last year.

After Chelsea’s WSL win against Arsenal on Friday night, Hayes, who has won six WSL titles since taking charge in 2012, said she regretted her comments.

Hayes said: “Of course Jess and I have had a conversation about that.

“I’m supposed to be the most non-clickbait coach and so I let myself down yesterday.

“I don’t think it was right for me to use the term inappropriate for the players.

“When I have honest conversations I don’t take things back but I have zero criticism of any player in my dressing room for anything regarding their status or who they’re in a relationship with.”

On Thursday, Aston Villa boss Carla Ward said a manager should be sacked for having a relationship with a player, calling it a “complete abuse of power”.

Hayes was one of several other WSL head coaches who claimed coach-player relationships should not be allowed.

When asked if a ban should be part of a wider WSL code of conduct, Hayes said: “Yeah, I think so. There are challenges that we should be moving past.”

Aston Villa boss Carla Ward said a manager should be sacked for having a relationship with a player, calling it a “complete abuse of power”.

Ward said it is the responsibility of managers to protect players and said “to cross that line is unacceptable and it can’t happen.”

The former Sheffield United and Birmingham City boss said: “It makes me very angry because we are here to set an environment and a comfortable place to work that the players feel safe, backed and looked after, so I just don’t understand anyone that crosses that line. You can’t do it. It is a complete abuse of power.

“We are in a moment where there is a microscope on the women’s game and people have taken advantage of certain positions, and I don’t like that and I don’t think it is right.”

Asked if a player-coach relationship should be a sackable offence, Ward replied: “Yes. One hundred per cent.”

The 40-year-old, who represented the likes of Sheffield United, Lincoln and Bristol Rovers during her playing days, said the possible grey area of a player-coach relationship – given it is not illegal, providing no minors are involved – should be addressed in contracts.

She added: “It is an unwritten rule, and I am sure teachers don’t have it in their contracts. But given where we are at now, and people don’t understand it, maybe put it in black and white so it is clear.”

Ward also said that players feel unable to report a potential issue.

“It is the biggest problem because if you are the manager and you are crossing that line, it is very difficult for anyone to report it,” added Ward.

“Say, you have got a director of football, and they have done wrong, or are doing wrong, and you know that, and a head coach or manager does it, you can’t go to that person because the first thing they will do is rip up your contract. I saw this as a player a lot.

“You hear things all the time and it infuriates me. The only way to clean up the game is to highlight it and get rid of it.”