Ruesha Littlejohn: Abuse towards red-carded midfielder ‘disgusting’ – Carla Ward

Littlejohn, who was speaking alongside Ward in the press conference, said she “regretted” the incident with Wales international Cain, and that her emotions overspilled on the pitch.

The midfielder had until Thursday to respond to the FA’s charge of violent conduct and is set to discover the outcome of the disciplinary hearing in the coming days.

“Obviously I regret letting my emotions spill over on the pitch. I’m quite an emotional person and player,” she said.

“That’s not who I want to be on the pitch, so I will learn from it and move forward.

“Obviously I’ve been working with my team and hopefully it’s all dealt with properly and it’s fairly dealt with, but I can’t say too much on that right now. I don’t want to harm the process.”

Littlejohn added that she was thankful to head on international duty after the game and has done her best to avoid social media and commentary surrounding the incident.

“I’m surrounded by good people here,” she added. “They have helped me through a tough week and it’s nice to be back in green with the girls.

“I’ve had a lot of support. I’ve had a strong group of people behind me, so it’s been good that a lot of them have checked in with me. That’s been nice and I’ve just stayed off social media.

“It can be hard because it’s coming thick and fast. But I’m a strong character, a strong person and I’m surrounded by a strong team, so we’ll be okay.”

Ward added that Littlejohn is someone she has “admired” in their time working together and is “someone who wears her heart on her sleeve”.

“She has acknowledged it was a moment that she deeply regrets,” said Ward.

“Look, we’re not talking about defending the incident here. We’re talking about what follows and we need to do more to protect players.

“They are human beings and they need looking after.”