Ian Wright paid for a Stoke City Women player’s rehabilitation from an ACL injury out of his own pocket after the club withdrew their support. Wright has been accused of ‘blocking’ female pundits from working in the women’s game by Eni Aluko.
The Arsenal legend has received a surge of support in response to those comments from Aluko. He is widely regarded as a key supporter of the women’s game and has been a regular pundit for Lionnesses matches.
While Aluko has claimed he is ‘dominating’ coverage, Wright has been a pundit for just one match in the entire 14-year history of the Women’s Super League. He also only worked on two matches at the 2023 World Cup, while Aluko was one of the faces of ITV’s coverage.
When he worked as a pundit on Euro 2022, which England won, Wright delivered a rallying cry which helped to convince the Government to commit to a pledge of equal sporting opportunities for children in school.
It is not just on TV screens where Wright is making an impact on the women’s game though. He has also been playing a role in the background to ensure that players are protected.
According to The Telegraph, Wright has been paying for a player’s rehab from a serious knee injury for the past four months. Stoke City’s Kayleigh McDonald ruptured her ACL in March last year.
She was forced to set up a GoFundMe page after being told by the Potters that they would not pay the costs involved in her surgery. Stoke City women are owned by the Coates family through their bet365 Group, with an estimated net worth of £7.4billion.
McDonald’s rehab costs in the region of £1,700 per month, with Stoke later backtracking after Wright paid for a sports lawyer to advocate for McDonald. But in November, the club again withdrew funding.
Wright helped secure funding for her until December and has since paid for McDonald’s recovery out of his own pocket. McDonald paid tribute to Wright for his generosity.
“I wouldn’t be in a great place mentally if it wasn’t for Ian Wright,” she said. “I would probably still be waiting for my surgery if it wasn’t for him. For him to do this for me, someone he didn’t know, I think there should be more of a spotlight shone on him.”
As well as paying for McDonald’s recovery, he also created the Ian Wright Coaching Fund in 2023 along with Barclays. The initiative aims to increase the number of female coaches at grass-roots level, with as many as 664 people funded to attend their Level One training course.
The stories of Wright’s work comes after Aluko delivered a shocking assessment of his relationship with the women’s game. She told BBC Women’s Hour: “I will never be able to usurp Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
“These are guys that have done it for a long time, they are brilliant broadcasters and rightly dominate their sport. I think the same should apply in the women’s game. I’ve worked with Ian a long time and I think he’s a brilliant broadcaster.
“But I think he’s aware of just how much he’s doing in the women’s game. I think he should be aware of that. There is a limited amount of space available. I can’t dominate the men’s game in the way that – you know, you used Ian as an example – Ian is dominating the women’s game.
“We need to make sure that women are not being blocked from having a pathway to broadcasting in the women’s game. It is still new, it is still growing. There is a very fine amount of opportunities and I think that men need to be aware of that.”
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