Soccer would do well to follow the example of basketball when it comes to looking after players, says NWSL star Sydney Leroux Dwyer.

The Women's National Basketball Association have recently secured a collective bargaining agreement that increased pay for players and introduced maternity and childcare benefits.

The NWSL currently does not have such an agreement and Dwyer, who has two children, says the league has to create something as it is losing athletes due to lack of wages.

“If you’re not on the national team, you’re sitting in the back seat. I think we need to make it important that it touches everybody. 

"What we’re doing is only affecting certain people and I think that that’s not good enough because we’re losing out on really good athletes because you can’t survive on an NWSL salary.

“People have different jobs, people’s parents are helping them and that’s not OK. This isn’t a hobby, this is our livelihood. Look at the WNBA and how far they've come," she told Forbes.

Fellow soccer player Alex Morgan, who is pregnant with her first child, responded to Dwyer's comments.

She said: "Important to highlight where strides have been made and still have to be made."

The NWSL season begins again on April 18.