‘I made the right decision to miss the Euros – I haven’t thought about a return to the England squad yet, but I’m feeling good and excited to play football again’ Millie Bright talks exclusively to FourFourTwo, at launch of her own sportswear range

Millie Bright was England’s captain at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, but she took the difficult decision to sit out this summer’s successful European Championship campaign.

The 31-year-old was one of three legendary figures to step back from Lionesses duty prior to the tournament, with Mary Earps announcing her retirement from international football, while Fran Kirby followed suit after discovering she wouldn’t be picked for the final squad.

Bright would have been selected by Sarina Wiegman, having also been part of the team that won the Euros in 2022, but opted to withdraw herself from consideration, saying she was unable to “give 100 per cent mentally or physically”.

Millie Bright has no regrets on missing the Lionesses' Euro 2025 win

On Thursday night, Bright was in central London for the launch of her own sportswear range, and told FourFourTwo that she made the correct decision this summer, no matter how tough it was.

“It was really difficult, but it was very clear to me – I knew what I needed to do,” she told us.

“It had been a very hard season with Chelsea. Even though we won three trophies and went unbeaten in the league, it was really demanding and draining, and my knee wasn’t so great. I made the decision to get surgery, which I needed.

“Mentally I just wasn’t there either, and it would have been selfish to take the spot of a player who could have been 100 per cent physically and mentally.

“I was so proud watching the girls at the tournament, I was rooting for them the whole way, and not at one point did I think I should have attempted to play. So I knew I’d made the right decision.”

Bright is now raring to play football again, ahead of Chelsea’s WSL opener on September 5, but hasn’t made any decisions yet on whether she’ll be available for England’s next game – due to be against China at Wembley on November 29.

“I’ve not really thought about it to be honest,” she said. “I just want to have a really good pre-season, make sure everything goes the way I want it to go, start the season strong and then I’ll take it from there.

“I’m super excited for the season, I feel amazing in myself, my knee is really good and I’m back in training, so I’m looking forward to pushing on. The first game is against Manchester City at the Bridge, which hopefully sets the tone for us and how we want the season to go. I’m really excited to get going.”

Bright's new project

Bright was attending a special event at SOOO on Regent Street as she launched a limited-edition sports bra and range, in partnership with sportswear company MAAREE.

The bra features artwork inspired by Bright’s tattoos and her career, and also includes the phrase Dream Big, the motto given to her by her mother when she was a child.

The collaboration started when Bright got in contact with MAAREE after being impressed by their work.

“Millie actually approached us, she was having trouble with sports bras, she was wearing two at a time and couldn’t find the right support for ages, but she’d heard about us,” explained MAAREE’s founder, Welsh sports bra engineer Mari Thomas-Welland.

“When she contacted us, we were bouncing around the room thinking ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe Millie Bright has reached out to us’. It’s been so great to work with her – she’s an incredible role model, not just on the pitch but off it.”

Bright has been delighted with how the collaboration has turned out. “I started working with Mari and we just put our heads together,” she said.

“We wanted to do a Millie Bright collection, we thought it was really unique, really important and a good way of getting a message across. For me getting the right sports bra from Mari wasn’t just a game-changer, it was a life-changer.

“As a female, it’s so important, sports bras are just as important as your football boots and it’s something that I’d always struggled with, getting the right support and kind of being fooled over the years with everyone saying they had the best bra.”

A lightbulb moment

Fortunately for Bright, MAAREE’s ideas were able to help her. “I used to be a sports bra performance tester in a lab, putting women in different bras on a treadmill and measuring how much motion is or isn’t happening while you’re running,” Thomas-Welland explained.

“I play hockey and I couldn’t find the perfect sports bra for myself, and realised it wasn’t just me having that problem.

“Your boobs move in a figure of eight when you run but a lot of brands used to concentrate on reducing downward motion, which was great, but a bit short-sighted because they move in all directions.

“So I used to give them advice – why don’t you put something over the top of the chest to remove upwards motion? Nobody ever did it, so I thought ‘Why can’t I do it?’.

“That was the lightbulb moment, so I went to a charity shop one day, bought a belt, curved it to the shape of my body and attached it to a sports bra I already had, went for a run and I could feel how much of a difference it made.

“People don’t realise how much it can hinder your performance if you wear an ill-fitting sports bra. It reduces your stride length subconsciously by four centimetres with every step you take – over the course of a marathon, that would be a mile. It’s massive, and all just down to wearing the right bra.”

Bright was immediately won over when she tried out the sports bra that MAAREE made for her.

“I trialled it and was absolutely blown away, just with the level of detail, the amount of care that goes into it, the research she’s done, the trial and error as well,” the defender said.

“We just hit it off straight away – when you’re partnering with someone on something as personal as this, there has to be feedback and they’ve taken absolutely everything on board and been so supportive.

“The bra holds so much of my legacy and my career, that’s what I love the most and hopefully it can make a difference for a lot of other women out there.”

The range also includes T-shirts and a cap – for more information, visit MAAREE.com. There will be a full interview with Bright in FourFourTwo magazine soon.