England Women to wear blue shorts at Finalissima and World Cup after players voice period concerns

The England women’s football team have switched from white shorts to blue as players were concerned about playing in white while on their period.

Last year Beth Mead and Ellen White said the team spoke to England’s official kit manufacturer Nike about making the change because white shorts were “not practical when it’s the time of the month”.

“It’s something we’ve fed back to Nike,” Mead said.

“Hopefully they’re going to change that [the colour]. It’s very nice to have an all-white kit but sometimes it’s not practical when it’s the time of the month.

“We deal with it as best we can. We’ve discussed it as a team and we’ve fed that back to Nike.”

Sarina Wiegman’s European champions did wear the all-white kit during February’s Arnold Clark Cup victory, but will wear the new kits for the first time in Thursday’s Finalissima against Copa America winners Brazil at Wembley.

Preparations are ramping up for the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand this summer.

England will face co-hosts Australia in Brentford next week before playing Haiti, Denmark and China in Group D in the World Cup finals this summer.

The Women’s World Cup gets underway on July 20 as England look to make it back-to-back honours.

Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion and Scottish side Livingston have also ditched white shorts from their kits.

The Ireland women’s rugby union team also announced a change from white to navy shorts last month.

Euro 2022 was the first tournament where the Lionesses wore a kit solely designed for them rather than wear the same kit as the men’s team.