Everton striker Toni Duggan has said female footballers “need to be comfortable” in the knowledge they can have children during their playing careers and has called for clearer guidelines around pregnancy to be implemented in the women’s game.
Duggan, who returned to Merseyside in 2021 after spells with Manchester City, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, announced in September that she would be out of action for the remainder of the Blues' Women’s Super League campaign after discovering she was pregnant during pre-season. While the striker has hailed the “amazing” support she’s received from Everton, she’s keen to highlight the need for more research into the relationship between pregnancy and football and wants to pave the way for other players looking to have children in the future.
“It [was] pre-season and they're trying to run me hard and I'm thinking 'I can't do this',” Duggan told the ECHO. “I had to pick up the phone and call the doctor, which was difficult, and I didn't really know who to tell and when to tell them, but the doctor really supported me with that.
