Ellen White should still have a few years left in her career, but according to the retired England striker, her recent retirement came due to one of the strangest reasons imaginable.
White, 33, retired shortly after England’s triumphant Euro 2022, just weeks before the start of the Women’s Super League season. The move came as a surprise, but as White told the BBC, it was a choice she had to make early.
“If you said to me two or three years ago, ‘You’re gonna retire,’ I’d be like ‘Absolutely not!,'” said White. “I’ve had a challenging year last year. Coming back from the Olympics, I basically punctured my lung.”
According to White, who had never previously disclosed the injury, the damage to her lung was caused during acupuncture designed to help her overcome a back injury suffered during the Olympics.
White’s acupuncture was set up by Manchester City, who reportedly had a high volume of injured players after the tournament and connected the striker with a specialist not employed by the club.
White missed time last August due to what was simply called a “medical issue” at the time, but recovered quickly enough that she scored for England against North Macedonia in September 2021. However, White says playing through the injury has been a significant challenge.
“It punctured my lung, which isn’t something that happens normally obviously,” said White. “It was a big reason, it accelerated my retirement.”
Per White, she went to Euro 2022 knowing that this would be her swansong as a professional, in part because the problems that came with the lung damage persist to this day.
Despite that, White battled through 22 appearances for Man City in the WSL, putting up four goals and four assists, and started every game for Sarina Wiegman at Euro 2022, scoring twice and settling into an interesting partnership that would see Alessia Russo replace her around the same time in every single match.
White says that even after retiring, the situation has been a challenge, but that she hoped her experience would help others avoid the same issue.
“It’s important for me now to tell my story, and say it was a big factor in my year and leading up to the decision of wanting to retire,” said White. “I don’t want it to happen to anybody else again, is my main thing. I don’t want to walk away from the sport having not told it, and not say that I want things in place for it not to happen to anyone else.”
Despite the obviously bad news, White offered a little bit of a perspective when it comes to going out on top. “I’m ending on being a European champion, so that’s very nice.”
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