'I struggled with my weight in the Lionesses and to look a certain way to be accepted'

ok.co.uk:

Former Lioness superstar Fara Williams MBE "struggled" with her weight during her time as a professional footballer and felt like she had to "look a certain way" in order to be "accepted".

Fara, 39, played as a central midfielder for the England national team from 2001 to 2019, competing in four European Championships and three World Cups, where she scored against Germany securing the team's third-place title in 2015.

The footie star also competed at the 2012 London Olympics for Team GB and played for the likes of Everton, Arsenal and Reading until her retirement in 2021.

But it hasn't always been easy for the football star as she spoke exclusively to OK! and told us: "I've struggled with weight and feeling like I needed to be a certain weight to be able to be accepted. "Also body fat was something that, certainly on a national level, it was looked at you wanted to be in a certain bracket, which was difficult - I felt like I needed to be a little bit heavier in order to maintain those good levels for 90 minutes. "But I also felt like I needed to look skinnier or look lighter in order to be accepted outside of that and to fit in the right bracket in terms of food, but it didn't work for me in terms of performance levels. "So that was something that I learned and when I came out of the game, or even when I was in it, I was passionate about trying to get that bit right because they do lead to eating disorders which we don't want to see in the game and in players." Talking further about why she struggled with her weight in the industry Fara shared: "Most of it was from social media and in society, I remember it was like 'carbs were the devil' and I stopped eating them because I thought they were bad for me. "But I know being.