Karen Carney 'was in a bad way' after ITV World Cup pundit developed addiction
Karen Carney is a regular on television screens, with the ex-footballer having transitioned to punditry following her retirement. A legend of the women's game, Carney played for both the England Lionesses and Team GB Olympics teams, and is revered as one of the best of her generation.
Having transitioned to punditry in 2019, Carney now works for the likes of Sky Sports, Amazon Prime and ITV, covering the biggest and best football matches in the world. That includes the ongoing World Cup, with Carney currently out in the States making up part of ITV's punditry team.
However, Carney has admitted to previously being in a dark place during her playing days, having battled addiction while playing for the Chicago Red Stars. It's said she was self-harming and addicted to sleeping pills during a stint with the Illinois outfit.
During a heartbreaking interview with The Guardian, she explained: "I was in a pretty bad way. I think that has been the hardest thing I've ever had to overcome. I came back [to England] purely to ... save my life, pretty much."
She continued: "My friends [helped]. People around me dragged me through and I owed it to them to try and fight, and it's an amazing feeling when you can get through that. It's hard to talk about it, and I couldn't have done it without people [around me]."
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Her story is one of resilience, but it isn't just her own demons that Carney has had to fight. Women's football has come on leaps and bounds since she was competing, with Carney explaining some of the barriers she faced.
She remarked: "So many times dogs nicked my ball, wee'd on my bottle, nicked my cones. And the mud. The mud was so thick. A lot of us in that [GB] team that I grew up with, we had to go to the local parks and train ourselves because we didn't have the facilities, the coaching."
On the steps the women's game has taken since, she continued: "The speed is improving, the quality is improving and it makes me so happy that the product is getting better and our female footballers are just thriving... I'm really happy with my career. I'm so grateful and humbled for the opportunities I had. You ask any Lioness, our job is to always make it better for the next generation."
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