Maddy Cusack Inquest: Former Coach's Troubling Influence

The former coach of Sheffield United midfielder Maddy Cusack was accused of calling her a “psycho” and playing mind games in the months before her death, an inquest has heard.

Cusack, 27, was found unconscious by her father David at the family home in Horsley, Derbyshire, on 20 September 2023 and died later that day. Her death sent a shockwave through the women’s game; on Tuesday, the coroner’s court in Chesterfield heard troubling detail about the pressures she felt at club level.

“Psycho” from the touchline

Giving evidence, team-mate and partner Grace Riglar described how Cusack had been “anxious” when Jonathan Morgan was appointed Sheffield United Women manager, because of her previous experience of playing under him at Leicester City.

Riglar told the inquest that Cusack had recalled a match against a Morgan-led side in which a flashpoint on the pitch drew a stinging response from the dugout.

“I think she said that they played a game against a team while Jonathan was the manager. She had done something on the pitch and Jonathan called her a psycho from the sideline,” Riglar said.

“I don't think she let anyone know those types of comments affected her, but they did and they made her uncomfortable.”

That memory, Riglar suggested, coloured Cusack’s view of his arrival at Bramall Lane and fed into a growing sense of unease.

From ever-present to the bench

On the field, Cusack had been a fixture. A regular starter. An important figure in the dressing room. The shift under the new manager cut deep.

“She was used to starting every game, she was an important member of the team. When Jonathan came, she was in and out from the starting team a bit,” Riglar told the court.

“Her going from starting, to being on the bench quite a lot... she saw that as a setback. That impacted her a lot.

“I just think she almost felt like it was a bit of a personal attack, and that Jonathan was playing mind games with her by starting her one week and dropping her the next.”

The uncertainty, Riglar said, gnawed at Cusack, who began to interpret selection decisions as something more than tactical choices.

Relationship under the spotlight

Riglar also described how their relationship became a source of discomfort for Cusack once Morgan took charge.

When he joined the club, the players were told in their first meeting that anyone in a relationship within the squad had to inform him. For Cusack, who wanted a clear line between her private life and her professional one, that directive landed awkwardly.

Riglar said Cusack felt particularly uneasy when Morgan drew attention to them in front of team-mates.

“She found it uncomfortable when Jonathan would call me 'Mrs Cusack', especially in front of other players.

“We wanted to keep our relationship very professional. The football side and relationship side were very separate.”

What might sound like a throwaway remark in another environment, Riglar suggested, carried weight in a dressing room where Cusack already felt exposed.

Comments about weight and changing habits

The inquest also heard that Morgan made a comment about Cusack’s weight. The effect, according to Riglar, was immediate and stark.

Cusack altered her eating and exercise patterns: cutting out carbohydrates, skipping breakfast, adding extra runs after training. This from a player Riglar described as already among the fittest in the squad.

“She was one of the fittest players on the team anyway,” Riglar told the coroner, underlining how unnecessary those changes appeared from the outside.

As the new season approached, the strain seemed to tighten around Cusack.

Riglar said she had become “paranoid” and increasingly isolated within the club environment.

“She didn't really have anyone she could speak to without it getting back to Jonathan,” she said, painting a picture of a player who no longer trusted the channels around her.

Looking for a way out

Away from the pitch, the court heard that Cusack had been signed off sick by her doctor, covering both her part-time playing duties and her full-time marketing role at Sheffield United.

The dual load of football and office work had been a point of pride, a sign of her commitment to the club. By the end, it had become something she needed distance from.

Riglar told the inquest that Cusack had started to talk about escape – not from football in general, but from her current situation and surroundings. She spoke of moving to Dubai, of becoming a flight attendant, of starting again somewhere far from the scrutiny of team meetings and selection boards.

Cusack had been searching online for new jobs in the days before her death, the court heard.

Those details, laid out quietly in a Derbyshire courtroom, added another layer to the portrait of a player caught between a club she had given so much to and a future she was desperately trying to redraw.