England legend Ellen White suggests ex-Lionesses team-mate Mary Earps broke 'unwritten oath' with scathing criticism of Sarina Wiegman & Hannah Hampton

Earps helped England to win the Women's Euros in 2022, while Hampton was an unused substitute in the tournament. The then 21-year-old was left out of subsequent squads, reportedly because of a bad attitude, but Wiegman said it was for "something personal" she didn't want to address. The Chelsea keeper was recalled in early 2023 and eventually took Earps' starting spot for Euro 2025, where she played a crucial role in the Lionesses' triumph. But Earps was clearly not happy with her return, with the 32-year-old writing in her autobiography 'All In', "I felt protective of the good energy we now had in goalkeeper training and the morale of the wider team. Bad behaviour is being rewarded."

In a matter of months, Earps has gone from being the darling of the Lionesses to not going with her team-mates to the Euros in Switzerland this summer, to retiring from international duty, and now facing a negative public relations storm.

Former England and Arsenal striker White said she felt "nervous" talking about this topic, in addition to an overwhelming sense of "sadness" that it had gotten to this point.

She said on BBC 5 Live Sport: "Honestly, it's made me quite uneasy. I feel very nervous today because I feel like I've got, and all the Lionesses and football players, I feel like we almost have this unwritten oath when you're in a team that that togetherness, what happens in that dressing room, in and amongst training, in your bubble, that that stays within that team and that environment. So I feel a little bit uneasy about what has been spoken about by Mary Earps. But then I also feel like she's also my teammate. So I feel a lot of sadness at the same time that I want to help at the same time. I was there in 2022, and I would protect my team with my life, and I would never go into what happened within that environment. That's not for me to speak about."

White appeared to choose her words carefully when addressing a matter that has seen Earps come under heavy fire. England's record cap holder, Fara Williams, said the former Manchester United stopper's remarks were "baffling," but White took a less hardline tone.

She added, "What I would say is when Sarina came in, we built this culture and philosophy and togetherness and that family-like feel that felt unbreakable, and it felt so beautiful at the same time. And 2022 was so important for us that we never let anything come in between us and that bubble and that winning mentality. And I love that about football, and it just feels like that's been penetrated a little bit, and it's quite hard to take. In any workplace walk of life, you're not going to get on with everyone. But what a boring life that must be if we were all the same. Everyone's different, and that's why it makes it so special. And that's why being part of a team is so unique, in that everyone is different and everybody brings something different. But you're not necessarily going to get on with everyone, but you respect everyone and you love everyone because what they bring makes your team better. All 23 of those players enabled us to win the Euros. Everyone. And that environment that we created together, we would do anything for each other. And we'd fight for each other, but everything is in that bubble, and nothing escapes that bubble. So that's what makes it quite challenging for me. And that's why it makes me quite nervous to talk about it because it's just, it's like sacred."

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