Maddy Cusack was concerned she would be stigmatised by Sheffield United and head coach Jonathan Morgan if she disclosed her mental health problems to them in the weeks leading up to her death, according to her father.
The former Sheffield United women’s vice-captain was found dead at her home in Horsley, Derbyshire, by her father, David Cusack, on September 20, 2023, at the age of 27. An inquest into her death at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court began on Monday, June 29, nearly three years later.
Maddy joined Sheffield United from Leicester City in 2019, where she had previously worked with Morgan. She would go on to become the Blades’ first player to reach 100 appearances.
Her father, David, claimed that her departure from Leicester City was due to the ‘principal’ reason of her strained relationship with Morgan, saying: ‘She left because she had never come across a character like that before in football.’
Leicester City Women’s team were owned at the time by Morgan’s family, prior to the King Power takeover in 2020, and David believed she was under pressure to leave the club by Morgan after it became apparent that the women’s team were not going to gain promotion.
Sheffield United footballer Maddy Cusack was found dead at home on September 20, 2023
Jonathan Morgan, pictured today, was appointed Sheffield United’s head coach in February 2022, a moment which dad David Cusack describes as having left Maddy ‘dismayed’
‘I believe that the family decided that they wanted to offload players,’ he said. ‘Either by paying contracts up – which is expensive – or you make life so unpleasant for them that they leave.
‘Madeleine was dependent on me at that time, so when she was unhappy there because life had been made so unpleasant for her, she decided that she wanted to leave. You can forgo your money and look around for another club. She was so happy to get out of there in November 2018.’
He describes her move to Sheffield United as a welcome one, and she was left fulfilled by her part-time playing role alongside her paid work with the club’s Community Trust, with David praising the influence of managers Carla Ward and subsequently Neil Redfearn. She also bought herself a new house, which he said she was ‘very proud of’.
‘She had some sort of inner propulsion which drove her. She was so driven. She did a lot of training and kept herself fit. Anybody describing Maddy would say she was a proper pro.’
Maddy, who had been awarded a First-Class Honours degree from the University of Derby, then joined the club’s marketing department as a marketing executive alongside her football career.
Morgan was appointed Sheffield United’s head coach in February 2022, a moment which David describes as having left Maddy ‘dismayed by the possibility of him coming back into her life’.
‘We’d taken the view that he (Morgan) was in our rear-view from September 2018,’ David said. ‘From when he was appointed, she played seldom. She took it that it was her “here we go again”.’
Morgan, who was present at the inquest, has denied any wrongdoing.
He argued that he had been told Maddy had a foot injury when he joined the club, and that this was the primary reason for leaving her out of his starting line-up for the first three games of his time in charge, despite the fact she had been regularly starting prior to his appointment.
By summer 2022, Maddy had been offered a new contract to remain at the club, although David argued that Morgan ‘didn’t want to offer Maddy a new contract’ and that her role in the club’s marketing department meant she was ‘forced on him’. He added: ‘I don’t know that, but that’s my surmise.’
‘She became unwell in July and I think that was a result of the contract,’ David said. ‘She’d had to wait and it never materialised until the end of June. She was told that there was no money left.
‘She still wanted to do justice to her job. Various people would say that the transition to full-time was a ‘shambles’. The venues for training would change suddenly, the time would change suddenly. If she had turned up late, they in the club’s marketing department would have understood, but she couldn’t do that. She wanted to do justice to her roles.
‘She’d lost her bounce. She was anxious. She was worried about how she was going to combine the two roles. She just lost her joie de vivre. Grace (Riglar, her team-mate and partner) joined Lewes in Brighton. She was disappointed by that. But it all came back to the relationship with Mr Morgan.’
In the weeks leading up to her death, Maddy’s parents sought a private psychotherapist, where she was prescribed antidepressants and sleeping pills, while she reluctantly called in sick to work. David said that Maddy ‘didn’t want’ Morgan or the club to know about her mental health issues.
‘She felt that if she disclosed her mental health issues – she saw it happen to other people – that would be an excuse and she would be out. It wouldn’t be the first time that an organisation stigmatised someone for not being well enough to work, would it? I’m not saying that’s what would have happened, but that’s how she felt.’
And, he said: ‘She felt like the club didn’t take the women’s football team that seriously. If it’s a battle between me and the manager, they’ll go with Mr Morgan. That’s what she believed.’
Cusack’s family – brother Richard with his partner, and parents Deborah and David – are pictured outside Chesterfield Coroners’ Court in January of last year
Asked specifically about what Maddy thought of Morgan, he replied: ‘It was his way of dealing with people. Like it was ‘my way or the highway’. He couldn’t deal with established players because they could see through him.’
Morgan argued that he had brought Maddy lunch when she was short of time to make sure she could attend her marketing job, and had worked hard to get her a new contract. He also suggested that the players the Cusack family have approached to give evidence have ‘misrepresented’ him.
To this, David said: ‘(The players) sought us out. The general tenet was that when you were a favourite you were a favourite, but when you weren’t it got very unpleasant.’
Less than a week after her death, the Cusack family submitted a formal complaint to the club, outlining concerns about her treatment and mental wellbeing.
‘I wanted to make sure the club knew what had happened. I wanted Mr Morgan to be held responsible. We didn’t want to let it go and move on,’ David said on Monday.
‘The other narratives that are being pushed, being conflicted about her sexuality, money worries, it’s all a smokescreen. They’ve got to invent something else.’
Sheffield United commissioned an internal investigation into the matter, which concluded in December 2023, finding no evidence of misconduct.
In February 2024, Sheffield United dismissed Morgan following the emergence of information regarding a relationship he had with a player during his previous tenure at Leicester City between 2014 and 2021.
The club stated the dismissal was unrelated to the FA’s investigation, though it was welcomed by the Cusack family at the time.
The inquest continues.
