'Makes me very angry' - Aston Villa boss Carla Ward believes player-coach relationships should be a sackable offence as Leicester investigate allegations surrounding Willie Kirk

Foxes manager Willie Kirk was not on the touchline for his team's FA Cup quarter-final win over Liverpool on Saturday after being suspended by the club while it investigates allegations of a relationship with one of his players.

"Willie Kirk is assisting the club with an internal process, the outcomes of which will be determined in due course," Leicester said in a statement. Kirk has not been found guilty and the investigation is ongoing.

Asked about player-coach relationships in her press conference on Thursday, Villa boss Ward said: "Our job and our duty is to protect players, first and foremost, so to cross that line is unacceptable and it can’t happen. It makes me very angry because we’re here to set an environment, a comfortable place that people come to work, where they feel safe, where they feel backed, where they feel looked after. I just don’t understand anyone who crosses that line. The game is professionalised.

"When you talk about where does the line get drawn, I think it’s very simple, when the game got professionalised, you can’t cross that line. There’s talk of pre-professionalised, there was a social aspect. When I was a player, it was a very social aspect, but now we’re talking about levels that it’s parent-teacher in my opinion. You can’t do it."

Asked if it should be a sackable offence, Ward's response was a clear "yes".

There have been a number of high-profile cases of player-coach relationships in the women's game in England, with former Lionesses boss Mark Sampson sacked in 2017 after it emerged that he previously had a relationship with a player at Bristol Academy. Jonathan Morgan, formerly of Leicester, was also sacked by Sheffield United last month once the club learned he had a relationship with a player when in charge of the Foxes.

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall also commented on the issues regarding player-coach relationships in the women's game on Thursday, telling reporters at his press conference: "I think it’s very inappropriate for a number of reasons. It’s a clear no with relationships between player and manager. I think if you look in women’s football, when you look in the past there is no doubt if you look and read in NWSL for example, there is major issues within the game and there have been major issues in the past as well which probably, unfortunately, tells you there still are issues at some places. That concerns me from a player welfare perspective and I absolutely think that governing bodies, leagues, clubs, associations need to be strong on that. I do think it's very inappropriate."

Asked what those governing bodies could implement, Eidevall added: “In most situations it would be like, do you have whistle-blower mechanisms in place? What different ways of communicating do you have if you feel that inappropriate things are going on in the environment you are in? Or are you in a closed environment where you feel you don’t have any good way out? That’s just to make sure that players in this instance have the relevant communication ways to be able to report if anything inappropriate is going on. That could be inappropriate relationships but it could also be other things. It’s safeguarding and making sure people are safe."

Further updates and the final conclusions of Leicester's investigation of the allegations surrounding Kirk will arrive in due course.