Lionesses star Jess Carter has revealed that she was ‘scared to play’ for the first time in her career after being subjected to racist abuse during Euro 2025.

Carter, 27, suffered the abuse in the aftermath of the Lionesses’ quarter-final victory over Sweden last month. 

However, she was part of manager Sarina Wiegman’s starting line-up for the final, which saw them beat Spain in a dramatic penalty shootout to lift a second consecutive European Championship and avenge their World Cup defeat from two years earlier against the same opponents. 

Speaking to ITV News, she said: ‘Sarina spoke to me before, in the build-up to the Spain game and said that she was wanting to play me. 

‘At the time, I didn’t say anything, but in my head I just thought ”are you sure?”. The night before the game I remember feeling scared [to play Spain]. 

Lionesses star Jess Carter has revealed that she was ‘scared to play’ in the Euro 2025 final

The England team opted to stop taking the knee after the abuse suffered by Carter

‘That’s the first time I have ever been scare to play. 

‘I think it was a mixture of my performances coming into such a big game and on top of that scared of whatever abuse might come with it, whether it’s football-based because people were not happy that I was playing or whether it was going to be the racial abuse’. 

Her latest comments come after she had thanked her team-mates for their support following victory in the final of the competition. 

Carter – who currently plays for US-based side Gotham FC, previously stated: ‘I was super scared of playing the final for the first time in my life.

‘When I woke up in the morning and saw my team and saw the support I had – and the belief I had from my team-mates, manager and family – I could come out and give my all. That’s all you can do.

‘It’s incredible, the fans have been incredible all tournament and we couldn’t have done this without them.

‘We’re so grateful for them and this moment. Giving up is not in our DNA. We have stuck together from minute one. I couldn’t be prouder of this team and I’m so honoured to be proud of it.

‘I’m more disappointed in my previous performances than anyone else.’ 

 Lauren James, Jess Carter, Michelle Agyemang and Khiara Keating celebrate winning the Eurp 2025 final against Spain

Carter also went on to reveal her feared for team-mate Lauren James – saying she was scared for the ‘astronomical’ racist abuse that the Chelsea star could have suffered if she were the only England player to have missed a penalty in their quarter-final shootout against Sweden.

Carter added, via ITV News: ‘It’s horrible to say but it’s almost like a sigh of relief when other players that weren’t black missed a penalty, because the racism that would have come with LJ [Lauren James] being the only one that missed would have been astronomical.

‘It’s not because we want them to fail – it’s about knowing how it’s going to be for us [black England players] if we miss.’

Carter said she had received a ‘lot’ of online hate and announced that she was stepping away from social media.

England team-mate Lucy Bronze, 33, subsequently launched a fiery condemnation of the vile comments aimed at Carter and revealed abuse has been on the rise in the women’s game as it has grown in popularity.

‘We all know that any player of colour who’s played for England has probably gone through racist abuse. That’s a sad fact in this day and age,’ said Bronze. 

‘(We’re feeling) anger and sadness that our team-mate has gone through this. We don’t want it to happen. We want to be focused on the football. 

‘We want Jess and anybody else who puts on an England shirt to be brave, to be happy when they play for England.’

Fans voiced their support for Carter ahead of the final, which saw England run out as winners over Spain to avenge their 2023 World Cup final defeat

England had opted to stop taking the knee before matches, with Wiegman saying it was ‘not good enough’ for incidents of racial abuse to still be occurring, as she and the Lionesses sought to tackle the issue in another way. 

Women’s football has experienced a boom in popularity in recent years but, as Bronze made clear, that growth has brought serious challenges.

‘The bigger the game gets, the bigger the noise becomes, the more fans there are, the more critics there are,‘ she added.

‘We’re obviously open to critics, that’s why we love the sport, but we’re not open to abuse.’