{"id":1079340,"date":"2026-07-09T22:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T22:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1079340\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T22:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T22:50:27","slug":"sheffield-united-knew-maddy-cusack-had-difficulties-with-coach-inquest-hears-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1079340\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield United knew Maddy Cusack had \u2018difficulties\u2019 with coach, inquest hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

She died at the age of 27 in 2023<\/p>\n

19:43, 08 Jul 2026Updated 20:22, 08 Jul 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Maddy Cusack died in 2023<\/p>\n

Sheffield United<\/a> bosses knew midfielder Maddy Cusack had issues with her former coach before they hired him to manage the women\u2019s team, an inquest has heard.<\/p>\n

Chesterfield Coroner\u2019s Court<\/a> was told a manager at the club thought Jonathan Morgan did not have the \u201cgreatest reputation\u201d when he was appointed as the coach months before Ms Cusack died.<\/p>\n

Ms Cusack, 27, was found unresponsive at her home in Horsley, Derbyshire<\/a>, on September 20, 2023.<\/p>\n

The player\u2019s family sent a written complaint to Sheffield United within a week of her death, outlining issues they alleged stemmed from her time working under Mr Morgan.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s head of football administration, Carl Shieber, told the inquest on Wednesday (July 8) that Mr Morgan was \u201ctransparent\u201d about his relationship with Ms Cusack, whom he worked with years earlier at Leicester City, during an informal chat before he was recruited by Sheffield United in February 2023.<\/p>\n

Assistant coroner Sophie Cartwright KC<\/a> previously heard that Mr Morgan acknowledged that he and Ms Cusack had difficulties at Leicester, which he said he had resolved and \u201cwas capable of working in a professional manner with her\u201d.<\/p>\n

Maria Mulla, representing Ms Cusack\u2019s family, asked Mr Shieber: \u201cIt\u2019s correct, isn\u2019t it, that in your statement you said Mr Morgan told you there have been some difficulties between him and Maddy at Leicester?\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Shieber told the inquest: \u201cIn his interview, Maddy was mentioned along with a couple of other players. He spoke fondly about Maddy and light-heartedly about (how) there had been some moments or issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt Mr Morgan was being very transparent in his relationship with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon for players and managers to have a difference of opinion regarding selection.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr Morgan said\u2026 their paths had crossed and were on a good working relationship. They even laughed and joked about the time they had at Leicester.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he told Ms Cusack the club was considering hiring Mr Morgan, Mr Shieber said: \u201cIn any industry, you would not be approaching the junior staff employees regarding the appointment of a manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inquest has previously heard that Mr Morgan called Ms Cusack \u201cbottom-heavy\u201d, which he said was referencing her muscular legs, and said \u201chere come the girlfriends\u201d when Ms Cusack was walking with her partner and United teammate Grace Riglar.<\/p>\n

He denied calling Ms Cusack a \u201cpsycho\u201d from the sidelines during a match before he joined United.<\/p>\n

Mr Morgan was included in a shortlist of recommended candidates to take over as United\u2019s women\u2019s team coach, Mr Shieber said.<\/p>\n

The inquest heard that the club\u2019s former women\u2019s team general manager Zoe Johnson said in an email that Mr Morgan \u201cdoesn\u2019t have the greatest reputation in the game but he has a good CV\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Mr Shieber asked Ms Johnson to clarify what she meant, she said he had been \u201ca bit of a d***\u201d, the inquest heard.<\/p>\n

Mr Shieber told the inquest: \u201cI spoke to Zoe Johnson about this. I don\u2019t remember exactly what she said. She said he had been a bit of a d***.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Shieber said the description was related to a \u201csingle incident\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the inquest heard that Mr Morgan referred to Ms Cusack as a ‘general liar’<\/a> in the FA inquiry into her death.<\/p>\n

The inquest continues.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has been affected by the issues raised in this article or needs support can call Samaritans for free on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She died at the age of 27 in 2023 19:43, 08 Jul 2026Updated 20:22, 08 Jul 2026 Maddy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1079341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8817],"tags":[748,393,4884,1020,1620,16,15],"class_list":["post-1079340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sheffield","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-inquests","tag-sheffield","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116892470338553219","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079340","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=1079340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1079340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1079341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1079340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1079340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1079340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}