Maddy Cusack's Struggles Under Coach Jonathan Morgan

Maddy Cusack’s former coach called her a “psycho” from the touchline and played what she believed were “mind games” with her in the months before her death, an inquest has heard.

Cusack, 27, a popular midfielder and marketing executive at Sheffield United, was found unconscious by her father David at the family home in Horsley, Derbyshire, on 20 September 2023. She died later that day.

The details emerged at Chesterfield Coroner’s Court, where former team-mate and partner Grace Riglar gave a stark account of the pressure Cusack felt under Jonathan Morgan, then manager of Sheffield United’s women’s team.

“Psycho” from the sideline

Riglar told the inquest that Cusack had been “anxious” about Morgan’s arrival at Sheffield United because of her previous experience working under him at Leicester City.

“I think it was stuff she told me about her previous experience prior to Jonathan coming to Sheffield,” Riglar said.

She recalled Cusack describing a game against a side managed by Morgan during that earlier spell. Cusack made a mistake on the pitch. From the technical area, Morgan’s response cut through the noise.

“She had done something on the pitch and Jonathan called her a psycho from the sideline,” Riglar told the court.

Cusack did not broadcast how deeply that remark had landed. Outwardly, she brushed it off. Privately, Riglar said, it lingered.

“I don’t think she let anyone know those types of comments affected her, but they did and they made her uncomfortable.”

From first name on the teamsheet to the bench

On the field, Cusack had long been a central figure. A regular starter. A heartbeat player.

That status changed after Morgan took charge.

“She was used to starting every game, she was an important member of the team,” Riglar said. “When Jonathan came, she was in and out from the starting team a bit.”

The shift hit hard. Being moved from the core of the side to the fringes felt, to Cusack, like something more than routine rotation.

“Her going from starting, to being on the bench quite a lot... she saw that as a setback. That impacted her a lot,” Riglar explained.

“I just think she almost felt like it was a bit of a personal attack, and that Jonathan was playing mind games with her by starting her one week and dropping her the next.”

The pattern fed a growing sense of unease. Selection, which for years had been a measure of her importance, now became a source of doubt.

Relationship under the microscope

The scrutiny did not stop at football.

Riglar, who played alongside Cusack and was in a relationship with her, told the inquest that Morgan’s arrival immediately brought their private life into the dressing room spotlight.

When he joined the club, she said, Morgan used his first meeting with the squad to demand transparency over internal relationships.

He told the players that if anyone was in a relationship within the team, they had to inform him.

For Cusack and Riglar, who had tried to keep a clear line between their personal life and the professional environment, the tone jarred.

“We wanted to keep our relationship very professional. The football side and relationship side were very separate,” Riglar said.

Instead, Cusack found herself the subject of repeated comments.

“She found it uncomfortable when Jonathan would call me ‘Mrs Cusack’, especially in front of other players.”

What for some might have sounded like a throwaway remark became, in Cusack’s mind, another intrusion. Another reminder that the boundaries she wanted to protect were being pushed.

Weight comments and changing habits

The inquest also heard that Morgan made a comment about Cusack’s weight.

Riglar did not detail the exact wording, but the impact, she said, was obvious.

Cusack altered her eating and exercise patterns. A player already known for her fitness began to push harder.

She stopped eating carbohydrates. She skipped breakfast. She added extra runs after training.

“She was one of the fittest players on the team anyway,” Riglar told the coroner.

Yet Cusack’s behaviour shifted as if she needed to prove something, to chase a standard that had already been met. The game that had long been her outlet now seemed to be closing in around her.

Growing paranoia and isolation

As the new season began, Riglar said, Cusack’s mindset changed.

She described her as becoming “paranoid”.

“She didn’t really have anyone she could speak to without it getting back to Jonathan,” Riglar said.

That sense of isolation cut across both her roles at the club. Cusack was not only a part-time player but also held a full-time marketing job at Sheffield United. The inquest heard she had obtained a sick note from a doctor to take time off from both commitments.

The club that had been central to her identity now felt, to her, like a place where every conversation might find its way back to the manager.

Looking for a way out

Away from the pitch, Cusack began to look beyond football.

The inquest was told she had spoken to Riglar about a complete change of direction. She wanted to move to Dubai. She talked about becoming a flight attendant.

Cusack had been searching for new jobs online in the days before her death, the court heard.

For a player who had been woven into the fabric of Sheffield United, both on and off the field, it was a striking sign of how far her thoughts had travelled from the game she once dominated.

Those closest to her are now left with the fragments of those conversations, and the sharp question of how a key figure in a professional dressing room came to feel so alone inside it.