Ched Evans's girlfriend Natasha Massey believes that her other half deserves to return to life as a footballer after serving a prison sentence for rape.

The 25-year-old was given a five-year prison term back in 2012 for raping a 19-year-old woman at a hotel.

The striker, who played for Sheffield United when the charge was made, is due to be released in October after serving half of his sentence.

"It wasn't nice for the whole world to know what happened," Massey told Sky News. "My boyfriend had sex with another woman and that wasn't nice for the world to see, but I stood by Ched and still do.

"If Ched wasn't a professional footballer we wouldn't be having this conversation, because that was his job before he went to prison.

"That's part of the whole rehabilitation process when you leave the prison and you go back to work. All Ched wants to do is go back to work, do the job that he loves, play football, score goals and then just come home and have a family life."

An online petition urging Sheffield United not to re-employ the disgraced footballer has received almost 60,000 signatures.