Lioness Keira Walsh on ‘whirlwind’ year for Chelsea and England | OneFootball

Keira Walsh on England duty | Photo: Jayde Chamberlain/SPP

Keira Walsh says she’s enjoyed the chance to have a few days off after what she describes as “a bit of a whirlwind” year.

After joining Chelsea in January 2025, she helped them to win the domestic treble, and then headed to England camp. During the Women’s Euros, Walsh was ever-present as the Lionesses retained their title.

Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor gave Walsh some extra time off before she joined up with the squad for pre-season.

“You have to decompress,” Walsh told the Chelsea website. “It’s important that you think about it and you take some time to breathe and refocus. If you didn’t do that, it’d be really difficult to go into the new season.

“I’m aware of that, and we spoke about it with England as well, and they gave us the opportunity to talk to people, to help us.

“Actually, this is the longest I’ve had off in a very long time, and having that, not thinking about football for a little while, then you’re ready to refocus, and ready to win some more trophies this season.”

Keira Walsh: ‘It’s about keeping women’s football in focus’

Walsh also spoke at length about the responsibility she feels the top players have to grow the women’s game even further. That begins with attracting more fans to Women’s Super League matches.

“Winning more trophies is important to us, but on a bigger scale, it’s about keeping women’s football in focus,” says Walsh.

“We’d like to see ourselves be the leading league in women’s football. We’ve got a lot of world-class players, and hopefully, there’ll be more to come after seeing what we did in the summer.”

She added: “When you have that visibility, girls know they can become it. Winning it back-to-back brings more focus on women’s football, and that women can play football if they want to and that there’s no problem with that.

“It’s not just about the next generation of professionals. If girls enjoy playing football and they just want to do it to make friends and to have fun, then they just need the opportunity to do that. We’re aware of that, that’s another reason why we love playing, because we know what it means to young girls.”

Chelsea begin their WSL campaign against Walsh’s old club Manchester City, at Stamford Bridge on Friday, September 5th.