The doctor 'empowering' England Women to success
From European champions to World Cup finalists, England's Lionesses have enjoyed unprecedented success over recent years.
So, what is their secret?
Head coach Sarina Wiegman and her backroom staff have been key in entrenching a winning mentality.
But there is one member in particular who has helped deliver a competitive edge by inspiring change of a different kind - tackling the taboos of female athlete health.
Dr Ritan Mehta has worked for the Football Association (FA) in his role as head of women’s medical for nearly 10 years.
Talking about periods, sports bras and breast and pelvic floor health has helped the team go from strength to strength.
He told BBC Sport: “We started looking at the menstrual cycle about five to six years ago. We want to empower our athletes to understand themselves better.
“I’ve been really surprised at how open the players are and, as a male doctor in a female environment, I think I was probably more conscious than they were.”
The FA’s approach to female health became even more sophisticated three years ago when it started working with an elite sport bio-analytics company, which provides platforms for menstrual cycle tracking through apps.
The technology is used by more than half of teams in the Women's Super League, allowing players, coaches and medical staff at both club and international level to track cycles and tailor training and nutrition accordingly.
"It’s trying to understand each individual because it’s not one size fits all," Dr Mehta explained.
One player had bouts of nausea and by tracking their cycle over a long time they realised it was related to a certain time of the month.
“We’re never going to get everything to zero. It's a natural process for a female – they will go through hormonal changes and that will unfortunately produce some symptoms that may be impactful.
"We're not going to remove all of that, but can we make it better? Can we make it 1% better, can we make it 10% better?"
Attention is now turning to pelvic floor health, the area of muscles controlling the bladder and bowels.
Dr Mehta, who is also a club doctor for Reading, believes this could have the biggest impact for female players as research suggests 20% of players in the professional game are affected.
"You hear anecdotal comments from players about leaking, particularly around gym and exertional activities and other issues including pain and discomfort," he added.
"It's a gap in our understanding at this stage but we want to fill that."
Discussions around pelvic floor is one of a number of female-specific health projects recently launched by the FA, while Chelsea recently became the first Women’s Super League club to appoint a pelvic health specialist.
Investment in this area has already helped a number of players, including England and Chelsea defender Niamh Charles.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the 24-year-old said: “I’ve had a really bad back injury and that definitely affects my pelvic floor.
"There’s some movements in the gym that I don’t feel comfortable doing with my back but when I link it to my pelvic floor and I start breathing correctly, the pain goes away."
The Lionesses’ approach to female health has now filtered through the pathway teams as far down as the under-16s, with a strong focus on education programmes and one-to-one sessions with players.
Charles added: "It’s day-to-day things and it’s high-performance things.
"When I’m playing football, it will be massively important but also when I retire, it will continue to be important for as long as I live."
