{"id":136892,"date":"2025-05-27T21:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136892\/"},"modified":"2025-05-27T21:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-05-27T21:14:08","slug":"millie-bright-on-england-squad-withdrawal-mentally-and-physically-im-at-my-limits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/136892\/","title":{"rendered":"Millie Bright on England squad withdrawal: \u2018Mentally and physically I\u2019m at my limits\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Millie Bright has said her withdrawal from the England squad is because she is \u201cmentally and physically\u201d at her limits and needs a break.<\/p>\n<p>The Football Association (FA) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6383135\/2025\/05\/26\/wubben-moy-england-bright\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced on Monday<\/a> that Bright had dropped out of the squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures to undertake \u201can extended period of recovery\u201d. Arsenal defender Lotte Wubben-Moy was called up in her place.<\/p>\n<p>Bright, 31, has been a mainstay of the England side under Sarina Wiegman, starting every match of the Lionesses\u2019 2022 European Championship-winning campaign and captaining the side during their run to the 2023 World Cup final.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DKKij2TtOKW\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Daly Brightness podcast<\/a> was asked by co-host and England team-mate Rachel Daly if she was feeling ok, to which the centre-back said \u201cprobably not at this moment\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think mentally and physically I\u2019m at my limits, which is why I\u2019m not at camp,\u201d Bright said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is a really hard decision but I think you know better than anyone as well \u2014 sometimes you just have to take that time for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bright added \u201csometimes you need to breathe and take a step back\u201d, saying: \u201cYou need to value yourself and your mental health and body, and just say that no, right now is not the time for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The defender\u2019s squad withdrawal comes after goalkeeper <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6384495\/2025\/05\/27\/mary-earps-england-retirement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mary Earps abruptly announced her international retirement<\/a> on Tuesday, a little over a month before England begin the defence of their European Championship title.<\/p>\n<p>England play France in their Euro 2025 group stage opener on July 5.<\/p>\n<p>Bright has made 88 appearances at senior international level since her debut in 2016 and has been one half of England\u2019s first-choice centre-back pairing at each of the last four major tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>The Chelsea defender was named captain by Wiegman for the 2023 World Cup after Leah Williamson missed the tournament with an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.<\/p>\n<p>While Earps\u2019 international retirement came after losing her No 1 spot to Chelsea goalkeeper Hannah Hampton, Bright has remained a regular starter throughout England\u2019s Euro 2025 qualifying and 2025 Nations League campaigns.<\/p>\n<p>She made 21 Women\u2019s Super League appearances for Chelsea during the 2024-25 season as the club secured a record-extending sixth successive league title.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">(Photo: Dan Istitene\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millie Bright has said her withdrawal from the England squad is because she is \u201cmentally and physically\u201d at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[748,393,4884,16,22172,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-136892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-uk-womens-football","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114581868651501229","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}