The 34-year-old made seven WSL appearances for Manchester City last season, with five of those coming as a substitute, before returning to her old club Everton on loan in January and starting 11 times; midfielder played in all of Great Britain's matches at London 2012.
Saturday 29 May 2021 13:24, UK
Jill Scott has spoken about the importance of her loan move to Everton in being selected for a second Olympics, with the midfielder convinced she would have missed out if she had not made a change.
The 34-year-old made seven Women's Super League appearances for Manchester City last season, with five of those coming as a substitute, before returning to her old club Everton on loan in January.
The remainder of the 2020-21 campaign saw her start 11 times for the Toffees and she is now preparing for this summer's Tokyo Olympics having been included in Hege Riise's 18-player Great Britain squad that was announced on Thursday.
Scott, who played in all of Great Britain's matches at London 2012 and was handed a 150th England cap by Riise in February and 151st last month, said: "If I'm completely honest with you, I think if my situation had stayed the same as it was before Christmas then I don't think I'd be sat here.
"I knew something had to change, and that wasn't me sulking or anything like that, I appreciated the position I was in, but I also knew I had a lot more to give as well.
"I want to thank (Everton boss) Willie Kirk and the players and staff at Everton for making me feel so welcome and allowing me the opportunity to go and express myself.
"I'm very happy with the way the second part of the season has gone and I've probably proved to myself that I'm still at this level and I'm still enjoying football. So very happy with that decision.
"We had a fantastic midfield (at City) in Caroline Weir, Keira (Walsh), Sam Mewis, Rose Lavelle. I knew the competition was going to be high.
"But when you don't feature for say four, five games and then suddenly you're starting a game - I felt like it was taking a lot of my energy to get myself at the level to play, and I think that's because I wasn't consistently playing.
"That's the first time I've felt like that, and I knew if you were wanting to go to a tournament, you have to be prepared mentally and physically.
"I recognised that I needed to go out on loan and get playing, and thanks to Man City for allowing me to do that as well.
"I always said if this call-up wasn't going to happen, at least I could look myself in the mirror and say 'look you did your best, you went away and gave it your best shot' and I could have lived with that. But if I hadn't done that I would have been very disappointed with myself."
Asked if the call-up meant more than the one for London 2012 given how she had felt before the loan spell, Scott said: "I think this one definitely means the most to me.
"Not that I took any other tournaments for granted. But this was definitely going to be the toughest selection - the calibre of the players that could have been selected, the level the game's at now, obviously people will talk about my age whenever I get selected.
"I always get those messages, that I'm too old, but you know what, judge me on physical stuff, and in fitness testing I always feel great. I like to think that age is just a number.
"But yeah, definitely it means so much. Maybe 2012, not that I took it for granted, but you went along with the experience. But I'm watching videos here and I've got goosebumps. It does mean the absolute world to be here."
