‘Pregnancy does not mean game over’: footballers train, play and return under new FIFA guidance

Claire Emslie and Emma Kelly have continued to train during pregnancy and, in Emslie’s case, returned to competitive women’s football after childbirth as FIFA’s Stay in Play guidelines — launched in July — have reshaped advice on participation; this coverage was published on 12 November 2026.

Emslie, a 32-year-old Scotland international and forward for Angel City FC, documented high-intensity training through pregnancy on social media and recorded running at 81% of her maximum speed at 32 weeks. She trained with a three-person support team, gave birth to her son Jamie in December 2025, returned to competitive action by May 2026, scored her first goal since coming back for Scotland in October, and netted her first club goal this month. Emma Kelly, 29 and a Newcastle United player, also continued training after an unexpected early-year pregnancy while withdrawing from contact for safety reasons before 12 weeks.

Carolyn Kent, a physiotherapist and founder of the Women’s Football Hub, said caution around high-impact sport and pregnancy has been common, driven by concerns about overexertion, contact and miscarriage, but attitudes are shifting. She noted earlier messages that “once you hit that first trimester, 12 weeks, all contact stops” and said practice is becoming more nuanced as a result of the new guidance. Kent added: “Pregnancy does not mean game over.”

The FIFA Stay in Play research provides a framework that recommends the 12-week point as a loose cut-off for full-contact football because the uterus grows over the pubic bone and offers less protection in the second trimester, while indicating low-contact and modified training may continue where there is no medical reason to stop. Sinéad Dufour, a pelvic health physiotherapist and academic who helped develop the guidelines, said there are clear physical and mental health benefits from maintaining football activity and that some evidence points to a lower injury risk postpartum.

Dufour highlighted the research gap in sports science to date and credited investment in women’s football for advancing knowledge: up to 2021 only 6% of sports science research was conducted on women, and there are now “more than six million women and girls playing football in England alone.” She said: “More and more players are now staying through until they’re having families … And they put all this money into research.” She added: “There’s always been a notion that women just aren’t strong and robust the way we actually are, and now the science is proving otherwise,” and raised the tension between focusing on the foetus and what is beneficial for the woman: “I do think some of it relates to the foetus. That’s going to supersede what’s actually good for the woman, right?”

Kelly described the emotional and practical decisions that accompanied her pregnancy, saying: “I was questioning whether this is the right time” and “It’s not that I’m ungrateful but it’s just finding it hard being out of the team again and not being able to play the sport that I love.” She stopped contact play early because “football is so unpredictable,” continued training with club support, told teammates she was unwell while she waited to announce the pregnancy in the second trimester, and said her club provided specialised training, physio and equipment. “I want to continue as long as my body allows me,” she said.

Emslie discussed the sacrifices and commercial realities facing players, acknowledging concerns about fertility and career timing: “If I wasn’t worried about [fertility], I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant till I was retired,” and “I could have had a full football career.” She warned of how players are valued by clubs as circumstances change: “You’re used as a player,” she says bluntly. “As soon as you turn a certain age, or if you’ve got a kid, they look at you different … As a player, you’re wanted until you’re not.” She said she was not referring to her own club, which had been supportive of her pregnancy and return, and at the time of interview she was two months away from her contract ending with Angel City but had no news of a new deal being offered.

Dufour reported that pregnancy places substantial physiological demand on the body and noted performance outcomes on return: “The biggest stress test you’re ever going to go through is pregnancy,” she says, and her data show that some women will achieve personal bests when they resume competition. The piece observes that, in a data-driven football industry, those findings have practical significance for players and teams.

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