{"id":926087,"date":"2026-04-29T10:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T10:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/926087\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T10:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T10:08:15","slug":"chelsea-captain-millie-bright-announces-retirement-from-football-with-immediate-effect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/926087\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea captain Millie Bright announces retirement from football with immediate effect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bright will go down as one of the most influential figures in English women’s football.<\/p>\n

The defender retired from international duty last October, having picked up her 88 caps over a nine-year spell. <\/p>\n

She was instrumental in the Lionesses’ Euro 2022 victory, starting all six matches as they claimed a first major trophy.<\/p>\n

She also wore the captain’s armband as England reached the 2023 World Cup final and was a dependable leader throughout her career.<\/p>\n

However, she withdrew from the Euro 2025 squad<\/a> – a tournament England went on to win – stating she was “not able to give 100% physically and mentally”.<\/p>\n

Her position in the side was no longer certain, with younger defenders Maya le Tissier, Esme Morgan and Lotte Wubben-Moy continuing to progress with England.<\/p>\n

As a result, Bright was able to turn her attentions fully to Chelsea this season in the hope of leading them to a seventh successive WSL title. <\/p>\n

But it has not gone to plan for Sonia Bompastor’s side with Chelsea sitting six points adrift of leaders Manchester City with two WSL games remaining.<\/p>\n

They were knocked out of the Champions League quarter-finals by Arsenal but won the League Cup and are in the FA Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n

It has not been the fairytale ending Bright would have hoped for personally as she has been forced to sit out since February with a frustrating ankle injury.<\/p>\n

That was no doubt a contributing factor in her decision to retire, with her contract coming to an end in the summer and question marks over her future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bright will go down as one of the most influential figures in English women’s football. The defender retired…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-926087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116487448817479476","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926087","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=926087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}