Carly Telford jokes she’s the England ‘grandma’ after dropping huge hint that she will retire after Tokyo Olympics

CARLY TELFORD joked she has become the “grandma” of the Lionesses after dropping a huge hint that she will retire from international football, after next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

The England and Chelsea goalkeeper, 33, revealed the youngsters have been giving her stick for her age in training, as the squad prepare to take on Germany in a friendly on Tuesday.

She said: “They're not shy in reminding me how old I am. But I can still keep up with them just about.

“But I love it. It's so nice, it's a breath of fresh air to work with different goalkeepers.

“I’m now officially the grandma of the group. We've actually been able to develop, over the past few years, an amazing group of young goalkeepers.

“I think my role is to keep driving the standards and setting the Lionesses standards that I've always held.

“It’s helping them understand what it's like to be a Lioness goalkeeper,

“And trying to make them understand that they don't have to try and do anything different than just be who they are.

“And making sure that I'm still ahead of them, just a little bit!”

Telford made her international debut at age 20 in 2007, when Hope Powell was at the helm.

The Durham-born stopper admitted she had planned to hang up her boots after next year’s home Euros, before they were postponed to 2022 amid the coronavirus crisis.

She added: “I'm going to be very honest, my goal was to go to the Olympics, which was meant to happen this year, do the home Euros, and then I was probably going to retire.

“I wanted to enjoy my life at 34 years of age and go into the next phase of my career.

“I want to go to the Olympics still. I still want to go to the Euros but I do realise that my age and things may change.

“I don't know what my club situation will be either.

"So, for now it's the short sighted game going to the Olympics and then we will see what the future holds.”

The veteran Lioness has been helping youngsters like Manchester City's Ellie Roebuck, 21, and Everton's Sandy Maciver, 22, burst onto the scene.

Nowadays, stoppers in the women's game are supported with full-time training by a specific goalkeeping coach.

But Telford was lucky as a kid to get just 20 minutes, twice a week, with the manager to help her sharpen up her skills between the sticks.

She recalled: "I think the demands of a goalkeeper have changed throughout my tenure.

"I'd like to think that now that a lot of the top tier clubs are investing heavily in that department, and the FA have as well.

"What I had at their age was Tuesday, Thursday nights, 20 minutes, if I was lucky.

"It might've been the head coach or someone just kicking or volleying a couple of balls at me.

"Then I was just chucked into a session and you crack on and then you performed at the weekend.

"If you were good you got selected for England, if you weren't, you didn't. To see the girls' progress now is huge and I would love to be their age."