KATIE McCABE and her long-time girlfriend Caitlin Foord looked loved up as they jetted off to Ibiza for a well-earned holiday.
The Arsenal duo were joined by some of their teammates – both club and respective countries – for an end of season trip.
Katie McCabe shared loved up snaps with Caitlin Foord in Ibiza[/caption]
They were joined by a host of fellow football stars[/caption]
It comes after the Ireland star helped Arsenal to win the Champions League[/caption]
She called it a beautiful week with beautiful people[/caption]
Republic of Ireland international McCabe shared a host of pics from the holiday to Instagram, labelling the holiday a “beautiful week with beautiful people”.
Alongside a pic of her with her beloved partner, she shared pics with the likes of fellow Ireland stars Jessie Stapleton and Grace Moloney.
It was a well-earned getaway after what was a relentless and hectic end of the club and international campaign for the Dubliner.
On May 24, she and Arsenal shocked Barcelona to win the Champions League final.
The Gunners enjoyed the celebrations afterwards, with McCabe taking centre stage at the Emirates Stadium homecoming.
However, less than a week later, she was back in Ireland camp for the Nations League double header against Turkey and Slovenia.
McCabe was Player of the Match in the former, just six days after her Champions League heroics, but lashed out at the football calendar in the build-up to the latter.
The 29-year-old insisted: “It’s the whole calendar. I don’t know who’s in charge of it but it definitely needs to be looked at.
“What it will create over time, and we’ve already seen it in recent years, is burnout in players and major injuries.
“You’ve got world-class players that will be sitting out tournaments through injuries. We don’t want to see that.
“We want the best players in the world playing at tournaments on the biggest stage. I just hope it doesn’t cause too much more harm to us as players going forward.
“Like what we had to do last year, all through the summer, where you’re finishing a season and you’ve to kind of rest but kind of keep fit for the next block of games.
“It’s hard mentally and physically, from a periodisation point of view, to do that. So the timing of the fixtures needs to be looked at.”
The workload has taken its toll, with McCabe being left out of the Ireland squad for a pair of summer friendlies against the USA.
Head coach Carla Ward said: “Katie has played a lot of minutes for club and country.
“She’s on the verge of burnout, as are some others. There’s going to be conversations. It won’t just be Katie that won’t be travelling.”
And Ward believes it is a more widespread issue in football.
She cited her own decision to step away from former club Aston Villa — and England ace Millie Bright’s call to pull out of the recent England squad — due to burnout.
The Ireland boss added: “It’s a difficult one. You’ve seen it with Millie Bright at England coming out. The mental and physical fatigue is just massive.
“I felt it at Villa. It’s the reason I needed a break. It’s a tough place to be and I think there’s a lot of players close to it.
“They’ve played a lot of minutes, so we have to protect them. We’ll support anybody that needs a break.”
