Steph Houghton did not get the fairytale ending to her glittering England career as she was not selected for the 2022 European Championships.
Had she been a part of the team she would have lifted the trophy as captain when England beat Germany in the final 2-1 at Wembley.
Houghton hung up her boots from football in 2024, but her last appearance for England came in 2021.
‘As a player, it messes up your head’
Houghton had injured her Achilles six months before the 2022 Euros was due to start and worked hard to make sure she was available for selection.
However, head coach Sarina Wiegman did not choose Houghton for the final squad.
Houghton, who won 121 caps for England, recently opened up to FourFourTwo about not being able to end her international career with a proper goodbye: “In terms of an ending to a story, the Euros would have been absolutely perfect.
“Ellen White and Jill Scott’s ending couldn’t have been any more perfect. But I received 121 caps and every one was just as special as the others. Not many people – men nor women – have played for England more than 100 times, so I can be really proud of the consistency that I achieved.
“After the Euros, me and Sarina spoke and [she] said I hadn’t played enough games, which was fair enough: I’d missed pretty much a year of football, then between that October and December I missed out on playing for City because the manager changed the team.
“After Christmas, I started to play and the City manager was saying that I was playing the best football I’d ever played, but there was radio silence from Sarina. As a player, it messes up your head. You’re thinking, ‘I’m playing well for one of the top teams and I’m still not getting picked’.”
The defenders who were selected for the 2022 squad in the end were Alex Greenwood, Rachel Daly, Lotte Wubben-Moy, Millie Bright, Lucy Bronze, Jess Carter, Demi Stokes. In FourFourTwo’s opinion Houghton was very unlucky not to be picked.
All the defenders played minutes aside from Wubben-Moy and Stokes.
