Particularly after that experience, it was extra special for the Carter family to be at Wembley last July as Carter and the rest of the England squad celebrated winning the European Championship. However, that summer was also the period when Berger’s cancer returned, and Carter is quick to praise her partner’s mental toughness.
“Ann was like ‘OK, can I play football? Can I get back to it the next day?’ and her question ended up being ‘Am I going to die?’, and they said, ‘No, but it has yet to be dealt with.’ So Ann was like, “OK, now what?” It’s a very factual German way with Ann. It was almost maybe easier for me to deal with because she was like, “OK, job done, now what?” ‘ was, and she moves on to the next thing,” Carter said.
“It helped me deal with it too. The fact that she’d had so many good treatments before and had recovered so well from it before, there was no doubt she could do the same thing again. Her strength made it pretty easy for me.
“The treatment she’s received from her doctors has been exceptional, and Chelsea has been amazing. But luckily for us, Ann hasn’t had any surgery or anything like that for the rest of the season, so she’s just following up on her checkups and going keep it up, and hopefully there won’t be any more surgeries in the future.”
Despite that positive news, Carter says football has provided her with a bit of an escape at times, adding: “You go to play football and you forget everything that happened at home. Most of the time my life at home is great, so those short periods when people are sick and you go to football for that period, you just completely switch off from it.
“Finding your own escape is a really good way to deal with those emotions or to be able to reset yourself from the things you’re feeling, and then when you get home, you’re almost able to be in a fresh place. to deal with it again. That was good for me personally.”
Carter and Berger both came on against European champions Lyon on Thursday, and Carter – speaking ahead of the first leg, which Chelsea won 1-0 – said Chelsea are determined to come back after losing the League Cup final in March against Arsenal.
“We were really devastated by the Conti Cup final, it wasn’t a performance like us, and we had to get back together and find our rhythm again and work together as a team to put things right.”
Amid a spate of big games for Chelsea, Carter’s mind isn’t yet set on this summer’s World Cup, but having played for her country in all three of England’s games in February’s Arnold Clark Cup success, it seems give them a good chance of being selected. . She’s not counting her chickens yet, but says, “If I was lucky enough to go, that would be huge. There’s a huge pool of talent Sarina has to choose from, so I know I have a lot of work to do to get into that.” first place, but it would be huge.
“Going to another big tournament is great for everyone, of course, but going there and trying to get some minutes would be a huge stepping stone in the right direction for my international career.
“What we’ve done as an England team is make history, and by bringing the country back together in that period it was impressive, it really pushed girls’ football in the right direction.”
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