Remembering Maddy Cusack: A Life Beyond Football

On a grey Derbyshire afternoon, the bench is the brightest thing in the park.

Flowers, scarves, messages. A name carved into the wood: Maddy Cusack.

For her sister Olivia and cousin Emily Reilly, this is where the noise drops away and the memories come back. Not of a footballer first. Of their “sunshine”. Of the girl who laughed loudest and pushed the rules, then left someone else to face the music.

“She used to get us in trouble with my dad when we were younger,” Emily says, smiling at the thought. “It was always her idea then I'd take the blame for it.”

Three years on from her death, those stories are what they cling to. The answers, though, are still on hold.

A family still waiting

Maddy, a midfielder for Sheffield United and a popular figure around Bramall Lane, was 27 when she was found unconscious at her home in Derbyshire on 20 September 2023. An inquest into her death opened in June this year and was due to conclude in July.

It didn’t.

After just under two weeks of evidence, the coroner adjourned the hearing. Sheffield United had been asked to find further documents linked to her medical records. Months later, the pause continues.

Now, the family have been told they will have to wait until at least December to hear more evidence.

“It is very emotional and you can find yourself frustrated at times,” Olivia tells BBC Newsbeat. “They're very difficult days.” She calls the delay “extremely overwhelming”.

The inquest had already been pushed back twice before the latest adjournment. Each restart brings a new wave of detail, a new round of scrutiny – and then another silence.

The spotlight and the shadows

Inside the coroner’s court, the picture painted of Maddy has often been framed by struggle.

Evidence, including testimony from her mum, described how she had battled with her mental health in the period before she died. There were also references to problems involving Sheffield United coach Jonathan Morgan.

Morgan told the inquest he had “no concerns” about their relationship and insisted “things have not been portrayed factually or correctly with how she was feeling”.

While lawyers picked over her wellbeing and working environment, Olivia felt something vital slipping away: Maddy the person, not just Maddy the player.

“It dawned on me that when people were asked questions about Maddy and to share what she was like as a person, they were all very similar answers and quite focused on the football side of her,” she says.

“People don't seem to know her like we did – of course they don't. But I wanted to introduce a different side of Maddy.

“I wanted them to know more than the number on the back of her shirt or the colours that she wore on the football pitch.”

More than a shirt, more than a badge

Back at Scargill Park in West Hallam, where they all grew up, that “different side” is everywhere for Olivia and Emily.

With both of their birthdays falling at the end of October, they used to plan celebrations together. Now, Emily comes to the memorial bench instead.

“Now I just come here,” she says quietly.

The inquest has forced the family to relive the darkest period of Maddy’s life, line by line. What they want people to see is the rest of the story: the drive that took her into the professional game, the warmth that lit up dressing rooms, the mischief that filled childhood weekends.

Olivia had always looked up to her big sister. “I looked up to [her] my whole life,” she says. That admiration has turned into something else since Maddy’s death – a mission.

Keeping her name alive

Along with other family members, Olivia has thrown herself into campaigning since September 2023. At the heart of that work is the foundation created in Maddy’s name, set up to support aspiring female footballers.

“The foundation keeps me going,” she says. “It's been a real lifeline to be able to continue her story.”

The work is practical – funding, opportunities, visibility – but it’s also deeply personal. Every event, every initiative, is another way of refusing to let Maddy’s name fade into the background of a long legal process.

On Saturday, Olivia led a walk from Bramall Lane, Sheffield United’s ground, to near Derby where Maddy lived. Almost 30 miles on foot. A physical test, but also a statement.

“The aim with the walk is just to do her proud,” she says. “Maddy would love that we were all challenging ourselves.”

Investigations and unfinished business

In the days after Maddy’s death, Sheffield United commissioned an external report into the circumstances surrounding it. That investigation cleared the club of wrongdoing.

A second report, this time from the Football Association and launched in early 2024, is still in the background. It will not be published until the inquest is over.

So the family waits – for the coroner to reconvene, for the FA’s findings to be released, for the official record to finally catch up with the loss they live with every day.

“She will only ever remain a part of this life…”

Until then, the bench in Scargill Park does a different kind of work.

It holds the weight of birthdays that now end here instead of in busy restaurants. It carries the laughter of old stories about dares, pranks, and the big sister who always had a plan. It absorbs the silence when words run out.

“She will only ever remain a part of this life if we keep saying her name and keep remembering her,” Olivia says.

“And as painful as that can be on days where you want to forget and you just want to stay in bed all day and not face the world, I try and make a conscious effort to keep saying her name and keep her living alongside us ultimately.”

The inquest will restart. The legal arguments will resume. Reports will finally see daylight.

For her family, the real question now is not whether the system can deliver every last detail, but whether the game – and those who watch it – are willing to remember Maddy Cusack as more than a case file, more than a verdict, and more than a number on a shirt.