Former England and Arsenal footballer Alex Scott has revealed she used to work in the Gunners' laundry room washing striker Ian Wright's kit.

Now, they work side-by-side as TV punditscovering Premier League football.

Scott joined Arsenal when she was eight years-old and from the age of 16 she worked in the laundry room, washing and folding the men's first team kit for some extra money.

The defender wrote in The Sun that Wright was a 'childhood hero' and that 'he looked out for her when she was a kid'.

Scott recently made it to the quarter finals in Striclty Come Dancing; a show she has always wanted to go on, while Wright was in I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. 

She wrote: "Who would have thought that, all these years on, we would be on rival TV shows that have nothing to do with football.

"I guess it shows how far the women’s game has come that it wasn’t just Wrighty doing reality TV.

"I’m so glad the producers on Strictly thought that a former women’s footballer would chime with a prime-time audience.

"But I just never thought it would happen because you see only household names on the show."

Whilst Scott was playing for Arsenal she believed there was 'never a divide' between the male and female players. 

She wrote: "Male players such as Wrighty respect female footballers because they know we understand the game and graft just as hard as they do.

"And being among such talented male players in the laundry room made me desperate to be the best right-back in the world.

"That environment is the reason I never let football go, even though I wasn’t the most talented player."

Scott has also touched on the time when she became a part-time teacher of sports science to make ends meet.

"We were lucky to get £50 a week to cover travel expenses. I would be at the back of the coach after a midweek game marking homework and planning the lesson for the next day.

"Then we went semi-pro and it was a couple of hundred pounds a week."

With the Women's Super League now a full-time professional league, it was in 2009 when the England women were given their first central contracts.

She continued: "It makes me so happy that the hard work of female players from my generation has created a better world for young girls getting into the sport now.

"Today, kids know their local women’s team whereas the choice was pretty limited for us. In fact, most of the top female players of my day were brought up playing boys’ football. 

"Or, if they were lucky, washing the kit of their idols."