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<\/p>\nThe family of Maddy Cusack have described themselves as \u201cheartbroken and deeply saddened\u201d by Sheffield United\u2019s decision not to retire her No. 8 shirt from their women\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Cusack, who was the club\u2019s longest-serving player, took her own life, aged 27, on September 20, 2023, in a tragedy that has led to intense scrutiny on her last seven months at the club \u2014 coinciding with the appointment of Jonathan Morgan as manager.<\/p>\n
In a post to the Maddy Cusack Foundation, the charity set up in the footballer\u2019s name, her mother, Deborah, marked the second anniversary by thanking all the people who had helped the family cope with the loss of \u201cour beloved Madeleine\u201d.<\/p>\n
The charity, she said, had helped to create a legacy for Cusack and made it clear how popular she was in the world of women\u2019s football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am, however, heartbroken and deeply saddened by the seeming reluctance to retire Maddy\u2019s number eight shirt,\u201d Deborah writes. \u201cThis is the deepest mark of respect and honour that is bestowed upon a current player when tragedy befalls them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look around at others who have been lost and they are afforded this immediately \u2013 without pressure, or indeed without mothers having to write these words.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sheffield United\u2019s then captain Sophie Barker, Maddy Cusack\u2019s sister and mother and former player Tony Currie lay a wreath in Maddy Cusack\u2019s memory at Bramall Lane in 2023 (Michael Regan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
More than 1,200 people signed a petition after Cusack\u2019s death to call for her shirt to be retired in the way that has subsequently been seen with Diogo Jota of Liverpool<\/a> and, previously, with Millwall\u2019s Matija Sarkic, Swansea City\u2019s Besian Idrizaj, Dylan Tombides of West Ham United, Manchester City with Marc-Vivien Foe, and many others.<\/p>\n However, United initially took the stance that they would hold back on making a decision until Cusack\u2019s inquest had been heard. Then, last November, the family found out via the minutes of the Sheffield United fans\u2019 advisory board (FAB) that it was not happening.<\/p>\n Nobody from the club has explained it personally but the chief executive, Stephen Bettis, told the FAB that, despite nobody being given the No. 8 shirt since, \u201ckeeping the number in existence gives a reminder of who has worn it previously and keeps Maddy\u2019s memory alive\u201d.<\/p>\n That decision has caused considerable upset among Cusack\u2019s relatives, friends and former team-mates, many of whom have asked whether it is a response to her family making an official complaint<\/a> after the death of the former England under-19 international.<\/p>\n Nina Wilson, United\u2019s former goalkeeper, criticised the club\u2019s attitude during a vigil outside Bramall Lane last September to mark the first anniversary of her friend\u2019s death<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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