A better understanding of a squad's menstrual cycles could be the "extra inch" between World Cup success and failure, England star Lucy Bronze has said.

The Manchester City full-back, voted the best player in the world in FIFA's 2020 awards, says she and her Lionesses team-mates knew very little about the impact of their periods on performance heading into the 2019 finals in France.

That changed when Dawn Scott, who was part of the victorious United States team's set-up, joined forces with England after the tournament as their new physical performance manager.

Bronze said former England manager Phil Neville embraced Scott's methods when she came on board, and that the male sports science staff at Manchester City "are probably more comfortable than most girls about speaking about it".

She said the research in this area had been slow to come through because of the greater focus on the men's game.

"If this was men's sport there would definitely have been research into it (before now)," she said. "I think it's like anything, there's 20 times more data on the men's side than the women's side.

"There are more resources put into it, there is more money put into it, so the fact that periods are only a thing that affect female athletes, it doesn't surprise me that people haven't bothered to do the research or spend the time and the money, when actually it's something that probably needs more scientific research behind it than certain other aspects of the sport."

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