Hope Solo, the former US women's national football team star goalkeeper, has been arrested after being discovered passed out behind the wheel of a vehicle in North Carolina with her two-year-old twins inside, according to police.

A police report said Solo was arrested on Thursday in a shopping centre parking lot in Winston-Salem and charged with driving while impaired (DWI), resisting a public officer and misdemeanour child abuse.

She has been released from jail and is due to face court on June 28, the report suggests.

According to an arrest warrant, a passer-by noticed Solo passed out behind the steering wheel for more than an hour while the vehicle's engine was running and the two children were in the back seat.

A responding officer could smell alcohol, and the warrant said Solo refused a field sobriety test. A blood test was carried out instead.

Rich Nichols, a Texas-based lawyer who represents Solo, released a statement on Friday but did not respond to specific questions about the charges and said his client would not either.

"On the advice of counsel, Hope can't speak about this situation, but she wants everyone to know that her kids are her life, that she was released immediately and is now at home with her family, that the story is more sympathetic than the initial charges suggest, and that she looks forward to her opportunity to defend these charges," Nichols said.

Solo was dismissed from the national team following the 2016 Olympics in Brazil after calling the Swedish team "cowards" for taking a defensive stance against the defending gold medallists, ending a laudable playing career that was also marred by controversy.

She was suspended for 30 days in early 2015 after she and husband Jerramy Stevens were pulled over in a US Soccer-owned van and Stevens was charged with DUI.

She was also benched after publicly questioning coach Greg Ryan's decision to start Briana Scurry against Brazil during the 2007 World Cup, comments many saw as a slight against Scurry.

Solo was also involved in an altercation with family members in 2014 that resulted in Solo's arrest, although charges in that case were eventually dropped.

Solo made 202 appearances with the national team, with 153 wins and an international-record 102 clean sheets. She won a World Cup title and two Olympic gold medals with the team.

During the 2015 World Cup championship run, she allowed just three goals in seven games with five shut-outs.

She was elected to the US Soccer Hall of Fame in January. The induction ceremony is set for May 21.

Solo married Stevens, a former tight end for the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, in 2012. The couple's twins were born in 2020.

AP