Former Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack was “dismayed” that her previous coach was joining her football club months before she died, her father has told an inquest.
Chesterfield Coroner’s Court heard that 27-year-old Ms Cusack feared being stigmatised and ridiculed at the club before she was found at her home address in Derbyshire, on September 20 2023.
Her father, David Cusack, said head coach of the women’s team Jonathan Morgan was in the “firing line”, in a written complaint sent by her family to Sheffield United outlining issues allegedly stemming from her relationship with him.
Ms Cusack was “so happy” to leave Leicester, where she had first worked with Mr Morgan, and was “loving life” until he became her coach again at Sheffield United in February 2023, the inquest heard.
The court was told that life had been made “unpleasant” for Ms Cusack while she played for Leicester.
Mr Cusack said his daughter “never came across a character” like Mr Morgan before, including the “way he dealt with people”.
Her father said she then “fell on her feet” when she joined the South Yorkshire club in January 2019, where she also started working for United’s marketing team part-time.
He said: “(She was) dismayed by the possibility of him coming back into her life. I’m going to say, ‘Look, it may have changed. It’s a fresh start for both of you’. I tried to be positive”.
The inquest heard that Ms Cusack stopped being so strict about her healthy diet before her death, with her father adding: “I think, towards the end, she was demotivated.
“She didn’t let herself go, or anything like that. She was demotivated or deflated.”
Mr Morgan, who is representing himself in the inquest, asked Mr Cusack if he was aware that his daughter left Leicester because she sustained a hamstring injury that limited her playing time.
Mr Cusack said he thought his daughter had not played matches at Leicester because of a “clash of personalities”.
He also told the inquest that the “worst thing that could have happened” before Ms Cusack’s death was “the one thing she wanted” – signing a contract to play football full-time at Sheffield.
By the summer of 2023, Mr Cusack said, his daughter was “fretting” about her club contract.
He said: “We knew she was not very happy about how things had gone. She became unwell in July. I think that was as a result of the contract.
“It was strung out most of the summer, that contract.
“My own theory about that was it was a case of, ‘If we don’t offer her a contract, she will look somewhere else’.”
He told the inquest that when Ms Cusack signed to become a full-time player, she found it difficult because training hours clashed with her marketing job.
He said: “She was anxious, worried, how she was going to be able to combine the two roles. The money was less than it was the previous year. She just lost her joie de vivre.”
Asked about a comment by Ms Cusack that she had “no future”, her father said: “She’s got to give up something. She couldn’t carry on like this. We thought she was depressed, not suicidal.”
The inquest heard that United did not offer any psychotherapy or other support to Ms Cusack and she was given a sick note for time off work by a doctor.
Mr Cusack said that his daughter, who was prescribed medication, felt that if she used her mental health as an “excuse” she “would be out” of the team, and feared being stigmatised and ridiculed.
Mr Cusack added: “It wouldn’t be the first time an organisation stigmatised someone not well enough to work.”
The father told the court he found his daughter upstairs in their family home on the evening of her death before he attempted CPR and called for an ambulance.
Mr Cusack told the inquest: “After she passed away, we wanted – and still want – those we think are responsible to be held responsible.
“Rather than just let it go, ‘what a shame’, I decided I wanted to write down what her problems were, what she told us her problems were, and make a complaint.
“The man in the firing line was Mr Morgan.
“I wanted to air the grievances we had.
“This is no mystery, it’s all there.”
Mr Cusack said his daughter was “talented at most sports” but “football was her passion”.
Sheffield United’s own investigation, which concluded in December 2023, found no evidence of wrongdoing.
The inquest continues.
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