Football’s relationship with food is the focus for this episode of Footballers Unfiltered with Joe Hart. This is because, in 2024, FIFPRO revealed that one-in-five women's players experienced disordered eating over a 12-month period, according to a survey of footballers participating in a study tracking their health.
Disordered eating is an unhealthy relationship with food which covers many behaviours such as restricting food intake and excessive exercising. Some thoughts, behaviours and attitudes will overlap with eating disorders, but that term is reserved for those experiences which have received clinical diagnosis.
Molly Bartrip, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur as a defender, joins Joe to talk about how she came to realise the hard way that food is her fuel. Molly says “every pre-match I have pasta, regardless if it's 12 o'clock kick-off. Before I would have like a slice of toast maybe in the evening before a game, then I had that reality check that I was not performing and going to get dropped”.
Molly talks candidly with Joe about her battle with anorexia nervosa, depression and anxiety. It started at 14 years of age after an injury set-back when on international duty with England, at a time when she was playing for Arsenal’s youth sides. “For some reason my mind just had a switch. I didn’t feel good enough. I had no control over England selection, Arsenal selection, but I had control of what I was putting in my body. I'm just not going to eat,”
Now 28, Molly has over 10 years’ experience playing in England’s Women’s Super League, having represented Reading before moving to current club Spurs in July 2021. She talks openly about mental health and says “We put so much emphasis on injuries in football, but why do we not for the mental side of the game? I do think there's a long way to go, but we’re getting there.
Both Joe and Molly are joined by Dr Alex Culvin, a former player with AZ Alkmaar, Everton, Leeds United and Liverpool, and now FIFPRO’s Director of Global Policy and Strategic Relations for Women’s Football. As part of Alex’s PHD research in 2019, she investigated the health effects on WSL players after England's top-flight became professionalised and found evidence of fat shaming and eating disorders amongst players.
Alex says "In the women's game, where we have this acceleration of professionalisation in some parts of the world, we can't forget the key components that enable players to perform and feel like they can thrive as a human being; nutrition, mental health support and psychologists are fundamental to resource the game properly and ensure that we have players who feel supported."
If you are affected by what you hear, we encourage you to seek help in the following ways:
Check with your GP and for national hotlines
Talk to a trained therapist/mental health professional and check therapy services specialised in eating disorders for individuals
Check online resources available in your language
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This is a podcast made by Message Heard for FIFPRO.
Host: Joe Hart
Executive Producer: Sandra Ferrari
Producer: Mark Kendrick
Production Coordinator: Kirsty McLean
Videographer and editor: Ethan Judd
Audio and Mix Engineer: Lizzy Andrews
