Former Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack was concerned she would be stigmatised and ridiculed over her mental health, an inquest has heard.
The 27-year-old was found dead at her home in Horsley, Derbyshire, on 20 September 2023.
Her father, David Cusack, told Chesterfield Coroner’s Court that being reunited with a coach she did not like and changes to her contract had left her demotivated.
He said: “We thought she was depressed, not suicidal.”
David Cusack told the court life had been made “unpleasant” for his daughter by coach Jonathan Morgan while she played for Leicester City.
He said Maddy “never came across a character” like Morgan before, including the “way he dealt with people”.
His daughter had been “so happy” to leave Leicester in 2019, he said, and was “loving life” playing part-time for Sheffield United while also working full-time in its marketing team.
Her father described Maddy as being “the happiest she had ever been” the Christmas before she died.
However, he told the inquest she had been “dismayed” to learn Morgan was joining the club in February 2023.
The inquest was told Cusack stopped being so strict about her healthy diet before her death.
Her father said: “I think, towards the end, she was demotivated. She didn’t let herself go, or anything like that. She was demotivated or deflated.”
