Thomas Hitzlsperger believes that gay footballers are scared of the reaction they will get if they reveal their sexuality during their playing career.

The 31-year-old former Aston Villa and Everton midfielder came out on Wednesday, but only after retiring in September due to injury.

"We still have a long way to go because we fear a reaction and we don't know what will happen," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I can't imagine playing football and doing this at the same time.

"Towards the end of my career, I was pretty sure I was gay, that I wanted to be with a man and live with a man. About two years ago, I was almost at the same point where I wanted to speak out. I've never been ashamed of it and towards the end I thought about it.

"But I thought I still I wanted to be a football player more than I wanted issues of talking about my private life. Anything that was distracting me from football, I put it to one side. Certainly dealing with this issue takes a lot of time and energy so I thought: 'I don't really want to deal with it.'"

Hitzlsperger scored six goals in 52 international appearances for Germany.