Former Sheffield United<\/a> player Maddy Cusack would still be alive if the coach of the women\u2019s team had not been employed by the club, her mother has told an inquest<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chesterfield Coroner\u2019s Court heard that 27-year-old Ms Cusack was found unresponsive at her home address in Horsley, Derbyshire, on September 20 2023 after her manager Jonathan Morgan made comments about her weight and relationship to \u201ccut her down to size\u201d.<\/p>\n Ms Cusack\u2019s family sent a written complaint to Sheffield United after her death, outlining issues allegedly stemming from her relationship with Mr Morgan.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Ms Cusack\u2019s mother Deborah Cusack told the inquest that Mr Morgan was like her daughter\u2019s \u201cnemesis\u201d, who was referred to as a \u201cprison warden\u201d in messages between teammates.<\/p>\n Under cross examination by Mr Morgan, who is representing himself in the inquest, Mrs Cusack said: \u201cYou need to understand I\u2019m not blaming you for what she did but you made her feel how she felt.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the little knocks every now and again. You had to come in and cut her down to size.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was one of the best-known players (at United). Like you did at Leicester (City), you needed to be in control.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a direct line \u2013 if you hadn\u2019t been employed, Maddy would be here today.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs Cusack said her daughter, who also worked in the club\u2019s marketing department, was \u201cabsolutely devastated\u201d about Mr Morgan joining the club because of her experience of working with him years earlier at Leicester City, and worried that \u201chistory was repeating itself\u201d.<\/p>\n She told the court: \u201cIt\u2019s like your nemesis returning, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n \u201cWe had never come across a character like that before as a family. We don\u2019t do the mind games.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking about Ms Cusack\u2019s time playing under Mr Morgan at Leicester, the mother said: \u201cShe had a dreadful, dreadful time there.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was glad to get out of that situation. It was a terrible time.\u201d<\/p>\n The inquest heard that Mr Morgan called Ms Cusack \u201cbottom heavy\u201d after he joined United, which prompted the player to \u201ctry to get fitter and thinner\u201d by changing her eating habits and going on runs after training.<\/p>\n Mrs Cusack said: \u201cThat undermined Madeleine and knocked her confidence and all that she knew because you were questioning the state of her fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n She told the inquest that players who were sidelined by Mr Morgan would send text messages between them to \u201cget them through\u201d it.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThey refer to them being in prison when sidelined, on parole when playing and Jonathan Morgan as a prison warden.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of those players then left because they could. Madeleine had her (marketing) job.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was literally on her own. I thought she felt lonely from that and isolated. By this time, she had no confidence in anything.\u201d<\/p>\n The team\u2019s former physiotherapist, Francesca Carr, agreed on Wednesday that it was in Ms Cusack\u2019s \u201cbest interests\u201d not to put her in the starting line-up for Mr Morgan\u2019s first competitive game at the club because of an injury to her ankle.<\/p>\n Mrs Cusack said her daughter\u2019s relationship with Grace Riglar, who had also played for United, was a \u201cnon-issue\u201d and they welcomed her into their family.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s former captain Sophie Barker told the inquest on Wednesday that she thought the main reason for Ms Cusack\u2019s decline in mental health was because Ms Riglar had moved to another football club far away.<\/p>\n Mrs Cusack said she did not think this was true.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThey were still very happy. Yes, it wasn\u2019t ideal. In football, that\u2019s something that\u2019s not uncommon.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t see that was going to be a problem to sustain that relationship in the future, and didn\u2019t get that vibe from Madeleine.\u201d<\/p>\n She told the inquest that her daughter would have been \u201cabsolutely humiliated beyond belief\u201d when Mr Morgan called Ms Riglar \u201cMrs Cusack\u201d in front of their teammates, because she wanted to keep her relationship private.<\/p>\n Mrs Cusack said the club\u2019s doctor, Dr Subhashis Basu, called her husband after their daughter died asking if they wanted to donate Ms Cusack\u2019s brain for research, which they refused.<\/p>\n Dr Basu told the inquest on Thursday that Ms Cusack\u2019s medical records from her time at United have been lost.<\/p>\n Asked by assistant coroner Sophie Cartwright KC why he did not bring this to the attention of the coronial investigation, Dr Basu said: \u201cIf that question had been asked to me directly, I would have done.\u201d<\/p>\n Dean Armstrong KC, representing Ms Cusack\u2019s family, asked Dr Basu why he did not go to United\u2019s data protection officer about the data loss.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cMy view was to contact the medical records company first to try and address the problem. I believe I did raise it.\u201d<\/p>\n He later added: \u201cI was slow to report that. I did raise it eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n The inquest continues.<\/p>\n If you are experiencing feelings of distress, or are struggling to cope, you can speak to the Samaritans, in confidence, on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org<\/a>, or visit the Samaritans<\/a> website to find details of your nearest branch. If you are based in the USA, and you or someone you know needs mental health assistance right now, call or text 988, or visit 988lifeline.org<\/a> to access online chat from the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. This is a free, confidential crisis hotline that is available to everyone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.If you are in another country, you can go to www.befrienders.org<\/a> to find a helpline near you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1064427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,90488,142446,4884,8788,1620,16,15],"class_list":["post-1064426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-file","tag-file-photo","tag-great-britain","tag-photo","tag-sheffield","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116852185474105320","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1064426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1064426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1064427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1064426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1064426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1064426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Maddy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01KWC5T88C5Z1T7DNNHYHJHAF4.jpg\")
Maddy Cusack\u2019s family sent a written complaint to Sheffield United after her death, outlining issues allegedly stemming from her relationship with Jonathan Morgan (PA)<\/p>\n![\"Maddy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/a5f70035909b32cb37a728a7d2f18491Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzgyOTAyNzAx-2.78679088.jpg\")
Maddy Cusack\u2019s brother Richard with his partner Emily Baker, and her parents Deborah and David Cusack, outside Chesterfield Coroners\u2019 Court in January (Joe Giddens\/PA)<\/p>\n