England footballer Karen Carney ‘knew when it was time to hang up her boots’
F
ormer England midfielder Karen Carney mentioned her physique “couldn’t cope for much longer” as knowledgeable sportswoman, detailing her morning wrestle to stroll to the bathroom.
Carney, who received 144 caps for England and represented Great Britain on the 2012 Olympic Games, described having a “great career” enjoying for Birmingham City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Chicago in addition to her nation.
But she made the choice to retire from soccer in July 2019 when she felt her physique had had sufficient.
Ms Carney, 35, instructed Runners World UK: “I knew four years ago that my body couldn’t cope for much longer.
“I was 31 and when I got up in the morning I’d struggle to walk to the toilet with a bad back, knees and ankles.
“I knew then that I had to stop being a professional sportsperson.”
Carney described her transfer into operating after retirement as a “hard shift” from day by day soccer coaching to “working out to keep fit and maintain good mental health”.
Speaking of her operating heroes, Solihull-born Carney mentioned: “My all-time athletics hero is Denise Lewis, who’s from my part of the Midlands.
“I also had my photo taken with Sir Mo Farah in 2012 when I was part of the Team GB Olympic squad, which was five years after I had first seen him.
“The first time we were at a pre-China World Cup training camp in Macau, and Sir Mo was also preparing there. I remember seeing this amazing athlete doing laps in the blistering heat, which was just incredible.”
Since retiring, Carney has turn out to be an everyday broadcaster for dwell soccer for each males’s and girls’s matches, and lately appeared as a part of the England group for Soccer Aid.
She can also be main an in-depth evaluate of ladies’s soccer to make sure the sustainable progress of the ladies’s sport at elite and grassroots degree and to construct on the Lionesses’ success in profitable the European title.
Read the complete Karen Carney interview within the August concern of Runner’s World UK, on sale now.