Category News

Euro 2025 is just around the corner, with the first match kicking the tournament in Switzerland off on 2 July.

With squads expected to be confirmed in early June, injured players face a race against time to prove their fitness.

23 years old, 27 caps

Forward Lauren James suffered a hamstring injury midway through England’s 5-0 win over Belgium in April and there is no timeline for her return.

26 years old, 75 caps

Georgia Stanway was one of four players to start every match as England won Euro 2022 while she also helped the Lionesses reach the final of the 2023 World Cup, and has scored 21 goals in 75 caps.

33 years old, 139 caps

The Chelsea midfielder, who will be leaving the Blues this summer, hasn’t featured this season after damaging her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a pre-season victory over Feyenoord. Ingle, who captained Wales for nine years, is their most experienced player after Jess Fishlock and has a long-standing partnership with Angharad James-Turner in the centre of the midfield.

23 years old, 51 caps

Lena Oberdorf was named young player of the tournament as Germany reached the final of Euro 2022 and started every game at the 2023 World Cup.

28 years old, 124 caps

Vivianne Miedema suffered a hamstring injury during the Netherlands’ Nations League victory over Austria in early April. Manchester City’s interim manager Nick Cushing later confirmed she would likely miss the remainder of the Women’s Super League season but did not comment on her chances of playing at the Euros.

35 years old, 178 caps

Centre-back Maren Mjelde hasn’t featured for club side Everton since 30 March after picking up an unspecified injury before Norway’s Nations League fixtures at the beginning of April.

22 years old, 43 caps

Barcelona forward Kika Nazareth was ruled out for four months in mid-March after undergoing surgery on damaged ligaments in her left ankle and is not expected to be available for Portugal.

29 years old, 54 caps

Defender Luana Buhler hasn’t played since mid-March due to an unspecified injury but Tottenham manager Robert Vilahamn has been positive about her recovery. “She’s on grass now, with her studs on and running but not with the collective group. Plan is to get her back for the Euros and it looks like a good possibility she will be,” he said on 8 May.

25 years old, 44 caps

Teresa Abelleira suffered a ruptured ACL in her left knee in February while training at Wembley before Spain’s Nations League match against England. Real Madrid later confirmed she had undergone surgery in March.

You’re unlikely to see global superstars such as Erling Haaland or Kevin de Bruyne doing their weekly shop in the giant supermarket just across from Manchester City’s Etihad complex.

But head to the nearby area of Collyhurst and you may just spot City’s latest gem Nico O’Reilly picking up some milk and bread.

O’Reilly has been a breakthrough star in a disappointing City season – and was called “very humble” by team-mate Ilkay Gundogan following another vital contribution in the victory over Everton last month.

That’s an accurate description, as BBC Sport met the shy, but confident 20-year-old, before Saturday’s FA Cup final against Crystal Palace.

He says his friends and family help him stay grounded as he prepares for the biggest game of his fledgling career.

“I would say I’ve still got the same friends, I still do the same stuff, I still go to Tesco with my mum, stuff like this,” O’Reilly says.

In football, O’Reilly knows Manchester City and little else.

A boyhood fan of the club, he has progressed through City’s age groups since signing with the academy aged eight and insiders say the potential he displayed always made him destined for the first-team.

After captaining the Under-18s side to the Premier League title in that particular category in 2023 – and impressing in the elite development squad last season – he made his breakthrough into the senior side at the start of this term.

It was capped with a dream first appearance which came in the Community Shield penalty-shootout win over rivals Manchester United at Wembley.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” says the 20-year-old. “Even just being around the team every day is an amazing feeling.

“At the start of the season, because it is my first full season with the first team, it was a bit crazy to get my head around, but as the season has gone on, I have felt more comfortable.”

Despite being an elegant midfielder and describing himself as a box-to-box player, City’s injury crisis in defence has meant most of O’Reilly’s 18 games this season have come at the unfamiliar position of left-back.

Manager Pep Guardiola has admitted that is not his position, highlighted by the five goals he has scored so far, and although O’Reilly watched the likes of Yaya Toure and David Silva growing up, he was keen to stress he is his own man.

“Obviously there’s very big players here at the club and I watched them quite a lot,” he says. “Maybe I have attributes from certain players, but I don’t compare myself to anyone.

City – and O’Reilly – have grown accustomed to winning but the team have fallen short of the high standards they have set in recent seasons.

They have been deposed at the top of the Premier League by new champions Liverpool, relinquishing their four-year grip on the trophy, while being knocked out of the Champions League at the play-off stage.

Last Saturday’s shock goalless draw against rock-bottom Southampton leaves them in a fight to finish in the top five with two games remaining and, in turn, qualifying for the Champions League next season.

“I have found that the players have been positive for the majority of it,” said O’Reilly.

“These are players that have won everything and they are still trying to improve so we can get these wins. I think it has helped my mindset and how to approach things.

“We have had a tough season, however there are positives to take out of it. We are just going to try and finish as well as we can now.”

O’Reilly says boss Guardiola “drives the intensity” at the club and “gets us all going”, telling the players to “go out there and enjoy it”.

At one stage in the campaign, City went on a wretched run of one win in 13 games but boss Guardiola told BBC Sport the upturn in results since “would be difficult to imagine” without O’Reilly’s contributions.

Victory on Saturday can provide some satisfaction to an otherwise disappointing campaign.

His standout performances have come in the competition, scoring in the 8-0 thrashing of Salford in the third round, netting twice against Plymouth and turning the game around against Bournemouth by creating both goals after appearing as a half-time substitute.

Now for O’Reilly, getting his hands on a first major trophy in his maiden season as a professional awaits.

“Personally, it would mean a lot for me to get some silverware,” he says.

“Obviously coming through the youth stages, you have got the FA Youth Cup, which is – I’d say – the biggest tournament in youth football. Everyone wants to play in that.

“Then to transition through to the first team, you have got the FA Cup, where a lot of youth players do get chances.

Aaron Ramsey is at a crossroads.

As a generational Welsh talent, captain of his country and veteran of three major tournaments, his legendary status is already secure.

Mind you, the former Arsenal midfielder would say any talk of legacy is premature because, although he has enjoyed his first taste of management with boyhood club Cardiff City, Ramsey still wants to keep playing.

At 34 years old, that seems a plausible ambition for a man who has graced the Premier League, Serie A and Champions League, and scored in two FA Cup finals.

But after another luckless run of injuries, Ramsey is out of contract at Cardiff, who will be playing in the third tier next season for the first time since 2003.

Would a player of his class drop down to League One? And which other clubs would want to sign him now, given his fitness issues?

Will Ramsey turn to management instead? He relished his brief stint in charge of Cardiff despite their relegation from the Championship, and he has been tipped for a bright future as a coach.

Ramsey has said he wants to continue playing next season, but that in itself comes with uncertainty.

The 34-year-old’s Cardiff contract expires this summer and, while the option of another year is written into the deal, he has not yet committed either way.

Matters are complicated by the fact Ramsey is still recovering from a hamstring injury which has kept him out of action for two months and requires further rehabilitation.

By his own admission, Ramsey’s return to his boyhood club “hasn’t materialised how we wanted” because of a “very frustrating” series of injuries which have severely limited his playing time.

Since rejoining Cardiff in 2023, the midfielder has started only 13 league games plus two in the FA Cup as well as making eight substitute appearances in the Championship.

“He still wants to play,” former Wales striker Iwan Roberts told the Feast of Football podcast. “But is his body going to allow him?

“I think this [management] is the natural progression for Aaron with all the injuries he’s had for quite a long period.”

Although Ramsey is earning nowhere near the amount of money he was on at Arsenal or Juventus, the Bluebirds still had to push the boat out financially to bring him back to the Championship.

In League One, he would almost certainly need to take another pay cut.

According to those who know Ramsey best, he is a homebird who would be reluctant to move his family again towards the end of a career which has already taken him from London to Turin and then Nice, via Glasgow.

One of the main reasons for signing with Cardiff for a third stint was to settle down in south Wales with his wife Colleen and their three children.

If he was to stay, would playing in League One hamper his chances of being included in Wales’ squad for the 2026 World Cup should they qualify?

“I don’t know,” Ramsey said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. At the moment I’m still in the early stages of rehab [from the hamstring injury] and I’m going to carry on with that.”

Ramsey would not be the first third-tier player to represent Wales, who have picked from League Two and the Cymru Premier in the past.

However, playing in League One would represent a significant step down for a man who has spent the vast majority of his career at the highest levels of European football.

Ramsey has publicly stated that representing his country at a second World Cup is a factor in his desire to continue playing; there is a sense of unfinished business given how dismally Wales exited at the group stage in 2022.

But he was off the pace in Qatar and still only 31 at that point, as a lack of regular club football caught up with him and, in Ramsey’s defence, many of his team-mates.

Four years on in the United States, Canada and Mexico, it is likely his powers will only have waned further.

That was one of the reasons for fellow midfielder Joe Allen’s decision to retire last week.

“My instinct told me I wasn’t going to get there [2026 World Cup],” said Allen, who like Ramsey, was a shadow of his former self in Qatar.

“Or, if I did get there, it wasn’t going to be at the level I wanted to be representing my country at a World Cup.”

Allen knew the time was right to step aside. A Welsh football great as he undoubtedly is, it had become apparent the 35-year-old could no longer reach the high standards he demanded of himself.

Should Ramsey choose to retire and focus on management, he got a glimpse of how his future might look in the opposition dugout earlier this month.

Cardiff ended their ill-fated Championship season with a 4-2 defeat at Norwich City, who were under the temporary guidance of Ramsey’s former Arsenal midfield partner Jack Wilshere.

Although Wilshere, 33, is a year younger than Ramsey, the ex-England international has already been retired three years after an injury-ravaged career.

He started coaching with Arsenal Under-18s and joined Norwich’s staff earlier this season, before overseeing two games as caretaker manager.

There are plenty who want Ramsey to take the reins at Cardiff on a full-time basis, even though he has expressed his desire to keep playing.

“I think he’s got the pedigree, there won’t be much pressure on him in League One,” said his former Bluebirds team-mate Michael Chopra.

“If Cardiff stayed in the Championship I would have been a bit wary of giving him the job but I think it’s the perfect opportunity for Aaron.

“He knows the area, he’s a Cardiff fan. If he’s not going to get a chance at Cardiff City, where else is he going to get a chance of being a football manager?”

That is a sentiment shared by numerous Bluebirds supporters too, but one of Ramsey’s coaching inspirations has urged caution.

Although Wales boss Craig Bellamy has backed Ramsey to manage “at a high level”, he suggested earlier this season the Cardiff job might have become available a little too soon.

Former team-mates for Cardiff and Wales, now reunited as captain and head coach at international level, Ramsey and Bellamy enjoy a close working relationship.

It was no surprise, therefore, that Bellamy was Ramsey’s first port of call when he was made Cardiff’s caretaker manager some 48 hours before his first game in charge.

“I spoke to Bellers [Bellamy] quite a bit. He’s helped me out quite a lot in that 24, 48 hours,” Ramsey said after that match.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to work on tactical things, so I didn’t want to overload the players with too much information. We had a day to do that. We had to take in a bit from meetings, but it was more about trying to get your principles across and habits.”

It was striking how similar Ramsey was to Bellamy as a coach, not only in the way he set up his team but in the way he spoke about the game afterwards.

Habits and principles are key buzzwords of Bellamy’s burgeoning Wales tenure and, less than a year into the job, he has already had a major effect on his players – evident in Ramsey’s three games in charge of Cardiff.

Like Bellamy, Ramsey’s teams set out to be aggressive off the ball, pressing their opponents intensely and high up the field, while the aim in possession is to dominate, playing out from the back and attacking wherever possible.

Having spent a decade playing under Arsene Wenger at Arsenal, Ramsey will also take inspiration from the legendary three-time Premier League winner who signed him from Cardiff when he was 17 years old.

“I think what Arsene instilled in us is having that freedom to go and express ourselves, having that sense of confidence from him to go out there and to do that,” said Ramsey.

“That’s something that I’ll take throughout my managerial career, giving the players the confidence to go out there and express themselves.”

Young coaches making their way in the game often talk about the qualities they would like to take from their former bosses – while still maintaining their own clear identity, being their own person.

One thing Ramsey has ruled out for now is being a player-manager. Bellamy worked under Vincent Kompany while the former Manchester City captain played that dual role at Anderlecht, and the Wales head coach has warned Ramsey against doing the same.

That is not to say he would need to put his coaching on hold completely even if he was to continue in midfield.

When he was injured earlier this season, Ramsey sat in the stands and analysed games, sharing his findings with Cardiff’s coaches on the touchline.

He already has his A Licence and next on his list will be the Pro Licence, the highest coaching qualification.

Former Somerset all-rounder Arul Suppiah was teaching accounting and business studies in his new role at Queens College Taunton when he noticed something was wrong.

As he stood up to start the next lesson of a double period, he felt faint and only the wall he fell against was keeping him upright.

Classed as an eating disorder and serious mental health condition by the NHS, anorexia is often associated with young women – not former professional sportsmen in their 30s.

Except it should be. Anorexia can affect anyone at any time and for Suppiah, who made more than 200 appearances in county cricket, it had taken over his life.

What started as a health kick in 2017 had turned into something much more serious. Suppiah was exercising too much, eating too little and actively avoiding social situations, particularly those involving food.

The weight dropped off Suppiah and the comments on his appearance from those around him served as validation to ‘The Voice’.

After he almost fainted at work, a subsequent doctor’s appointment where he was advised to take time off and some soul-searching with his family, he decided enough was enough. Except it wasn’t.

“It got worse after being signed off,” said Suppiah, 41. “I was literally on my last warning.

“I remember my psychiatrist saying, ‘if you don’t improve or if you don’t progress, I’ll have to send you to hospital under the Mental Health Act,’ to sort of be sectioned.

That “little bit” of progress was the start of a long journey.

Suppiah, with help from the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA), a team of experts and his girlfriend and her family, realised something had to change.

“You do know that you have to eat and you have to get better, otherwise your organs will fail you,” said Suppiah, who was born in Malaysia and came to England to further his cricket and attend Millfield School.

Slow and steady was the key. He would eat eight small meals a day with the aim of returning to a healthy weight, but the journey to recovery was not a straight line.

“In the first instance I was recovering for the wrong reasons,” he said. “I was recovering because I didn’t want to let anyone down or I was doing it because I had no choice.

“My recovery was very up and down. I would sometimes put on weight, then I’d lose weight and vice-versa.

“Then I realised that actually, I’m just kidding myself and what I had to find out was the recovery was for my own good and for my own purpose. That’s when I started to believe in and trust the process.”

Suppiah, who was also director of cricket at Queens College, lives with depression, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety, with one study finding a correlation between anorexia and OCD in up to 44% of patients.

And while stress at work, years after he ended his playing career, was the trigger for Suppiah, he believes the demands of playing professional sport did have an impact on his mental wellbeing.

“The professional sports environment is pretty intense,” he said. “You’re always in the spotlight and you have to perform or you might lose your position.