Serena Guthrie plans on seeing out the season with Team Bath and hopes to be connected with England's Vitality Roses as they prepare for this summer's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham; "It was an absolute privilege to be part of that group for so long so I will miss that"
Friday 11 March 2022 14:03, UK
England netball legend Serena Guthrie is excited about the future after announcing her retirement from the game, but admits she will miss her fellow Roses.
The 32-year-old will not play in July's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after announcing her pregnancy and retirement from the sport on Wednesday.
Guthrie, who was instrumental in helping England to an historic gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, admitted feeling conflicting emotions after speaking with head coach Jess Thirlby knowing she will not be representing the Vitality Roses this summer.
"It was definitely a mixture of emotions and then that overwhelming feeling of the fact that I won't be out there with the girls this summer," Guthrie told Sky Sports.
"That all washed over me pretty intensely, but what was great was that I was able to communicate that with Jess and just start processing those emotions."
Guthrie, who was selected to lead her country as captain ahead of the 2019 Netball World Cup in Liverpool, says she is excited about the future and hopes to remain within netball.
"For me, the overwhelming excitedness of what's next; I love the unknown, I love that sense of being really progressive and moving forward. That's how I've been throughout my career but I will miss the girls, they are pretty much why I play," she said.
"People always ask you whys as an athlete. Why do you keep going on for so long? For me it is the Roses girls, it's that family. They're an incredible, weird, wacky bunch.
"It was an absolute privilege to be part of that group for so long so I will miss that, but being able to share the news with them over Zoom at the beginning of the week was just an amazing moment as well because I could see how happy they were and their level of support for me is just amazing.
"It's been an interesting week, an interesting three months but I'm in a really good space with everything and looking forward to my contribution which will remain within netball. I'm not going anywhere. I love this sport too much for that and I'm just looking forward to what it will kind of look like for me in the future."
"I needed her to be able to feel the joy in that moment because such is Serena - she puts the team before herself and has done throughout her whole career. She was happy but as a human, I needed to make her feel the joy. Wherever she's been in the world, we both know we can lean into each other when needed. I went to Jersey last year and I'm planning on going there a lot. I want to meet this baby as soon as possible."
Guthrie is regarded as one of the best mid-court players in the game, playing domestic netball in England, New Zealand and Australia during her illustrious career and was a Superleague title winner with Team Bath Netball.
She admits being "proud" of her choices and says she is "representing mums" by having a child as a professional sportsperson.
Guthrie said: "I was planning on having a baby after being a netballer and an athlete but to be able to do this and represent mums and talk about people like Eboni (Usoro-Brown) and Sophia (Candappa) and be really proud of their decisions and their personal choice in and around the sport is amazing as well.
"I've had incredible support from people like Jess and Team Bath - the people who love me just to give me the space to be able to do that and respect that because they love me too.
"I feel incredibly luckily to have the people around me that I do and to feel super confident about going forward."
