England captain Steph Houghton has said that former footballer Alan Shearer has done great things for the sport in the North East.

Houghton was speaking at the Football Writers' Association awards where she accepted the Personality of the Year award, an accolade Shearer won the year before her.

“Yeah, I’m a Sunderland fan, and I’m really really pro-Sunderland, but the likes of Alan Shearer - he’s a legend in the North East and the things he’s done for this area and in general for football is really special.

“I’ve got the utmost respect for him and I’m a little bit in awe of the previous winners of the award,” she told the Sunderland Echo 

Houghton added that despite England manager Phil Neville saying that Olympic talk is banned from the SheBelieves Cup camp, she is treating it as an 'audition' for Tokyo this summer.

“I think because of the teams that are involved - Japan and the USA - they’ve qualified for the Olympics, so for us it could be an audition.

“I understand what he [Neville] is saying because it’s England. We need to concentrate on England and what we’re doing and play the game that we have done.

“But as an individual you want to impress, and it’s not just about impressing at England level - it’s about impressing every single week in the WSL.”

Houghton will captain England when the SheBelieves Cup starts on March 5.