Sue’s update

Hi Guys

The last month has been a busy one despite not playing much football. My training has stepped up a gear so that I will be ready for the next England game which will be at Walsall against Turkey. I have been out of action for a few months due to my hamstring injury but with tough rehab lots of training and more importantly five a side football I now feel back to normal.  The girls did well in their game against Spain despite not playing up to our usual high standards we still managed to get a draw and had to fight back from going 2-0 down.  Although the skill wasn’t there it showed great resilience and commitment to come out with a draw at the end.

As the school year is coming to an end and the football seasons have finished I have been busy doing various appearances these vary from cheerleading, talks and posing for photographs. Starting with cheerleading, I work for a company called sporting champions who promote sport and physical activity to young people by getting elite athletes to visit and motivate them. Being a footballer and a great mover on the dance floor I was asked to go to a local cheerleading group, at first I was apprehensive as I knew little about the sport, after spending the morning with the girls I realised just how much training and effort these guys put in, it is a mixture between dance and gymnastics and the girls have fantastic flexibility, strength and balance. I found this out when they proceeded to lift me up with ease.  It is a fantastic project and hopefully I helped to encourage more youngsters to take up the sport. Maybe this is something I can take up when I decide to hang my boots up!!

I have done various end of school year presentations, the one that sticks in my mind is a catholic school near  me, were I spoke to the pupils about my career so far. During the interval I was bombarded for autographs and me being the disorganized person that I am, I hadn’t brought a pen, however a very kind nun from the school lent me hers. When I got home I emptied my bag and there was a lovely gold Lourdes pen I couldn’t believe it, I had just stole a Nuns pen, purely by accident. I felt awful.

My favourite bit of work has to be posing for pictures; before you say it yes I am a show off. The photographer Alison Palmer supports women’s football and the main focus of this project is to boost the profile of the women’s game.