'She's entitled to that perspective' - Eni Aluko backs Mary Earps after controversial comments about former Lionesses team-mate Hannah Hampton

Questions have been asked about why Earps, who announced her international retirement prior to the latest European Championship, felt the need to deliver a tell-all autobiography while still being a player herself. Many in that position wait until retirement before putting their story down on paper.

Two-time Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper Earps claims in her publication - All In: Football, Life and Learning to be Unapologetically Me - that England boss Sarina Wiegman could be considered to have been “rewarding bad behaviour” when recalling Hampton, who had previously been dropped, to the Lionesses camp. Hampton went on to become a penalty shootout hero at the Euros.

Earps also accused Wiegman of displaying a “clear lack of care for me and my welfare” prior to losing her No.1 spot, with bridges seemingly being burned by a 32-year-old shot-stopper who has never been afraid to speak her mind.

Ex-Lionesses star Aluko has told Sky Sports of Earps’ decision to go public at this stage of her career: “I do have some empathy for Mary because I have been in that situation before, where you come out and you say: ‘I didn’t like what happened there in this England environment’. And when you do that, sometimes you get demonised just for giving your perspective and saying I think that’s wrong.

“So Mary has written a book, she has given her perspective, and she is entitled to that perspective. I don’t really like this sense of sort of mob culture where you try to silence someone for just giving their perspective.

“I think the problem is that Hannah Hampton was absolutely brilliant in the summer. Sarina Wiegman, I’m a huge fan - she is one of, if not the best coach we have ever seen in England. I think the timing is the problem for Mary and maybe that is where she has been ill advised. A book is something that is evergreen and I’m not sure he had to come out now. But I do sympathise with Mary because I don’t want her to feel like there is a mob of people attacking her, because I have been there and it’s not nice.”

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Earps’ former team-mate, Lucy Bronze, is another to have defended the 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year from the criticism that has come her way on the back of releasing an explosive book.

The experienced Chelsea defender, who is a close friend of Earps, has told The Mirror: “Female players are constantly under a magnifying glass. In a football team you have a group of 20-30 players - there’s no way everyone will think the same things. There are different personalities - and there is high pressure.

“Men are solely judged on their ability and their lifestyle to a certain extent, but only if it's a huge headline. Generally, for most of the popular female footballers, there’s a constant lens on what we’re doing - on and off the pitch.”

Earps has made no apologies for her statements and hopes that she can “draw a line” under any supposed tension with Wiegman at some point in the near future - with talks between the pair being planned.

She acknowledges that there will always be differences in opinion when it comes to elite sport, especially when it comes to those filling playing and coaching posts, and will happily explain herself to anyone that wants to ask questions - with Earps, who won Euro 2022 and finished on 53 caps for her country, currently plying her club trade in France for Paris Saint-Germain.

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