England captain Millie Bright has warned that the boom in women's football is putting dangerous demands on players, with a host of star names set to miss out on the World Cup.
Bright will lead the European champions in Australia and New Zealand after regular skipper Leah Williamson suffered an anterior cruciate ligament knee injury, which has become a regular occurence in the women's game.
England are also without Euro 2022 Golden Boot winner Beth Mead, who tore her ACL in November. Mead's partner and Arsenal teammate Vivianne Miedema is missing for the Netherlands, while France are shorn of forwards Marie-Antoinette Katoto and Delphine Cascarino with the same injury.
Bright herself has faced a fight to be fit for the World Cup after undergoing knee surgery in March. But the 29-year-old said that injury has been "a blessing" as it allowed her time to physically and mentally recover after a gruelling few years.
Bright was central to England's success at Euro 2022 and helped Chelsea to a league and FA Cup double this season. "I think there is work to be done in terms of scheduling," she said. "We are not robots, we need time to recover."
"We want to perform for you guys (media), our fans, our clubs and our countries - we want to be at the highest level", Bright told reporters before England flew out to Australia.
"It's tough. I've been doing it for several years now and back-to-back tournaments, it's hard. When you are playing every single minute for your club too and that is the demands of the game now, you can see how competitive it is getting, the games are getting harder and harder to win."
A group stage was introduced to the women's Champions League for the first time in 2021, while there are two domestic cup competitions on top of the Women's Super League in England.
At international level, the Women's World Cup has doubled in size from 16 teams in 2011 - this year's tournament, starting on 20th July, is the first-ever 32-team event.
"It's everyone coming together to make sure the schedule works," said Bright. "It doesn't matter what club you play for, what country you represent. We care for the game, we care for the next generation coming through. We don't want to see this amount of injuries. The conversation will never die until we see some change."