WSL and England star Toni Duggan reveals why she hide her pregnancy

Speaking with

,

's striker

Toni Duggan

discussed the difficulties of hiding her pregnancy from her teammates in the early weeks. She said:

"I've still been having my Scouse, getting my goodness in, especially in this weather. My mum's been forcing it down me neck."

"In the first few weeks, I wasn't too sick, I was just actually being sick. I felt okay in myself so I'd be on the bike upstairs before the girls went out to training".

"It was every single time at 10 minutes. I think when my body temperature came up and I needed to be sick, the girls were in the gym and I was like where can I go? I had to be sick into my jumper and just put it to the side.

"It's been tough. One minute, I'm on the pitch training with the girls doing my own little session and the next minute I'm stuck in bed for 24 hours"

Still not able to share the news, Duggan claims it was the sickness that made her pregnancy difficult to hide.

"There are a few occasions when we went out onto the pitch and I was into the toilet being sick. The last time, one of the young kids was like 'are you okay? Is everything okay?' and I was said 'yes, I'm just having a bad day'.

"It was hard hiding it from them when we live in each other's pockets."

However, Duggan was quick to apologize to her teammates. She added:

"Andros Townsend was like a 'back injury eh?' and laughing with me.

"When we found out, I was shocked and surprised and thinking how are we going to tell them at football? Because we're not used to it in this environment.

"I know how difficult it was for me and I'm quite an experienced player. I'm 31 years of age and I've played at numerous clubs. I feel experienced in that regard, I'm quite outspoken and even for me, it was really difficult for me to handle and tell.

"I think if a 20-year-old girl went through this, how would they handle it? So I do think there's other things that could be put in place to help players."

On how she thinks Everton will cope without her, she added: "Everton have been amazing with me from the first day I told them. I couldn't be at a better club in that respect, but I do think there are other areas that could be improved.

"I just think there has to be a system. There has to be more support for the player, even going through it now, there's no protocol.

"If a player gets injured, gets an ACL injury then they know what's going to happen. They go and see a specialist to get advice, etcetera, etcetera. Whereas since I've been pregnant, it's kind of just how you feel. There's no research behind it, if you're feeling this symptom what should you do?"

The Scouse striker still has

England

involvement in her mind claiming she would never retire.

"

My ambition is to come back and play, that's what I'm focused on,

" she said.

"First and foremost, it's that me and the baby are healthy. That's the most important thing, however long that may take because nobody knows, everyone's pregnancy journey is different. But yes, I want to be playing for Everton next year.

"I would never retire from international duty. If I'm required or I'm called upon, I will always be available and I'll do that until the end of my career.

"Whether I'm good enough, or fit enough, that's up to the coaches. My ambitions never changed, I've always loved playing for the Lionesses, I've always felt a big part of it.

"If the England call comes, it comes and I'll be over the moon. But if it doesn't then so be it. I know there's a great generation of young talent coming through now with what they did in the summer. I was so proud of them and I would always say the door remains open on that one."

Follow 

 for the