'I was on £9,000 a year' - ex-England captain Houghton

Under Houghton's captaincy, England reached the semi-finals of the 2015 World Cup, 2017 European Championship and 2019 World Cup.

But the former Sunderland, Leeds and Manchester City player missed out on a place at Euro 2022, having not played for several months because of an Achilles injury, and was also left out of Sarina Wiegman's squad for last year's World Cup.

It was a painful end to her England career.

Instead of helping England beat Germany at Wembley in the Euro 2022 final, she watched the game on television at home.

In March, at the age of 35, she announced she would retire at the end of the 2023-24 season.

"My last conversation [with Wiegman] was when I found out I wasn't going to be in the squad [for the 2023 World Cup]," added Houghton.

"I was at St George's Park, I was doing a Nike appearance. I had a missed call on my phone and it was from her. She was at St George's and she asked 'would you mind coming to see me?'

"I was like 'well, OK, this wasn't really planned'. By then I was done with fighting the whole situation and I just had to accept it.

"For me, the situation could have been dealt with a little bit differently but I know I did absolutely everything and I had an unbelievable England career.

"I did struggle during the Euros because I knew how close I was to being potentially part of that squad. But that did not change the way I felt about the girls winning something that we had worked so hard to try to achieve.

"I took myself away and went on holiday with my family and tried to process it that way. I sat at home and watched them lift the trophy."

Houghton married Stephen Darby, the former Liverpool and Bradford City defender, in June 2018. Three months later, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

In her autobiography, she tells how she was in a different country on the day he was diagnosed with the rare condition that affects the brain and nerves.

"I was away in Spain playing for Manchester City," she told Woman's Hour.

"Being his wife and not being there for that conversation, there is a lot of guilt, a lot of anger and a lot of frustration because we had two years of tests, two years of different conversations and MND had not really been mentioned.

"To hear that over a phone call when you are away from your family, you don't know how to react.

"There was one appointment in Sheffield where there was a slight mention of MND.

"I remember going on Google when we got back to the car. After reading the first line I closed my phone and said 'no, he has not got that, that's not us, he's as bubbly as ever and we're still doing normal things'."

On the diagnosis, she added: "We'd just got married and had the best day ever.

"To then hear that news, the emotions were hard to put down in words."