England's Fran Williams believes netball can grow faster than football as there isn't a "male counterpart".

Netball's popularity has risen significantly since the World Cup in Liverpool earlier this year.

The 21-year-old said: “Netball is in a strong position because it doesn’t have a male counterpart and shows female athletes at their absolute best.

“The best netball players in this country are women and I think the sport benefits from the fact that we don’t suffer from that constant comparison.

“If you take something like football, the male teams can offer support to the women’s teams and we don’t have that which could be a negative.

“But if women are the only athletes taking part in a specific sport then we should be championing that and that is what netball does."

The defender plays for Wasps in the Vitality Netball Super League and she says that while the sport has distracted her from university and seeing family, she is committed to it.

She said: "Right now netball is my priority and I’d like to continue being as professional in the sport as much as I can be for as long as I can."