Johnson admitted yesterday to being severely affected by the controversy, which he feared could end his Test career after a dreadful start to the Ashes.

The Australian pace spearhead the 2009 international player of the year admitted he expected to be dropped for spraying his bowling in the second Test loss at Lord's.

Johnson said his tour got off the wrong foot due to his well-publicised personal issues which were compounded by the pressure of the situation and baiting by the boisterous English crowds.

His mother, Vikki Harber, threw the publicity-shy Johnson into the spotlight by saying his fiancee Jessica Bratich had stolen him away.

Johnson put himself off limits to the media early in the Ashes tour, and then later blamed his poor form more on technical bowling issues something he corrected after getting in camp with the Australian Test squad yesterday.

''I guess it [poor form] started off with the personal side of things that really probably did get to me,'' he said.

''I was probably denying it as well at the time, and copping it from the crowd didn't help.

''Mentally I have learnt to be a lot stronger. I've just got to concentrate on what I'm doing out in the middle ... It got technical as well because I was thinking about it but in the end it was just more of a mental thing.

''I just had to concentrate on where I wanted to bowl the ball and how I wanted to get those guys out and I just wasn't doing that, maybe even through the first Test [in Cardiff].

''But through that Lord's Test I was thinking about everything possible.''

Johnson, who had bowled Australia to a memorable series win in South Africa in April, said he was amazed by how much attention his problems received.

''I block things out pretty well normally but I think it was just the Ashes, the whole hype of it, and the personal things that came out,'' he said.