Mary Earps pinpoints the moment she wanted to become a goalkeeper

England star Mary Earps has admitted she was a "bit bored" the first time she ever played as a goalkeeper, which could have changed the course of history.

Earps has become a fan favourite and one of the face of women’s football in England over the last couple of years – although unthinkably Nike still aren't selling replica Lionesses goalkeeper jerseys.

Her form with Manchester United paved the way for her to return to the international scene in 2021 and she has been number one ever since, providing the foundation behind England's Euro 2022 triumph last summer and later winning Best FIFA Women’s Goalkeeper.

Earps has also been a vocal advocate of girls having a go between the stick. 'I want to make goalkeeping cool' has been her mantra since the Euros.

But even Earps herself didn't much like when first putting on the gloves, admitting she would rather have been outfield in order to be more involved in the action.

"I tried goalkeeping in my first game when I was getting into football. We were taking rotations to go in goal," the 30-year-old revealed in Lionesses: Down Under connected by EE.

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"Ten minutes in, it hadn't started off the way I wanted it to. I was a bit bored, cartwheeling around. I was saying to my dad, 'I don't want to be here, I want to be up there where the ball is'.

"A penalty comes, I saved the penalty and my dad, like a typical dad, goes, 'See, if one of the other girls was in goal, they wouldn't have saved that.' And that was it. That was my moment where I felt like I was where I was supposed to be, diving around in the mud and helping the team."

One of the important assets for a goalkeeper is the ability to stay mentally sharp during a game in which their team is dominating possession and they aren’t actively involved. Manchester United boss Marc Skinner has often reference Earps' "laser focus" over the last 12 months and it is one of greatest strengths – as seen when she two outstanding saves against Haiti recently.

"It's part of the job, it's hard," she admitted.

"We're a great team and our aim is always to possess the ball as much as possible which hopefully means I don't have to do very much. But it's international football, it's a very high level so you always have to be switched on and ready for anything that can happen."

Watch the full episode of Lionesses: Down Under below