Mary Earps admitted she felt “villainised” by the reaction to her decision to retire from international football before the Euros.

Earps earned 53 caps for her country and played a starring role during England’s Euro 2022 triumph as well as their run to the World Cup final the following year.

Her performances in those two tournaments contributed to her winning the Best FIFA Goalkeeper award in both years. However, she had recently lost her starting place with England to Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton.

Earps’ decision to step down from international duty came just over a month before the start of England’s Euros defence, with reports prior to that suggesting Sarina Wiegman had informed the 32-year-old that she would not be the first-choice goalkeeper at the tournament.

Wiegman asked Earps to reconsider, but she stuck with her decision, which she believes was the right choice.

“I think that I was villainised in a way that probably was a bit hard to see things and read things,” Earps said on the Happy Place podcast.

“But it’s more what my friends and family see and then the way they interact with me. I’m like, ‘Oh, I know you’ve seen something’, and then I’m upset for them because I’m like, ‘You didn’t choose this. You’ve got to now deal with this’. I’m then gutted for them. I feel like that’s hard.

“But in the end, I feel like it was the right decision. I don’t want it to be painful watching [England], but I won’t know until it’s there, because I felt almost a bit of relief because it had been so long coming.

“It got to probably mentally, physically. I was just like, right, I’ve given everything here.”

Earps’ decision was met by shock when it was announced, though England team-mates, including Lucy Bronze, said they were not surprised by the decision.

The Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper explained it was not a snap decision that had not had planning.

“In total transparency, it’s a very hard decision to make, and it had been in the works for a while, but obviously, maybe other people weren’t experiencing it the way I was experiencing it,” Earps added.

“I’m quite private, I keep everything in, and I try and internalise it and rationalise it. I felt like it was the right decision. I still think that now.

“I think maybe it was shocking to some people, but when you’ve been having those conversations behind closed doors. I was obviously able to tell the girls in person.

“They were so supportive and said goodbye. These are girls that I grew up with and have spent so much time with, so many amazing memories with. So yeah, it was sad, but I think it’s the right thing, and I’m really looking forward to supporting them this summer.”