The coach of former Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack called her a “psycho” and was playing mind games with her before her death, an inquest has heard. The 27-year-old was found unconscious by her father David at their family home in Horsley, Derbyshire, on 20 September 2023 and died the same day.
At Chesterfield Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, Grace Riglar, who played for the team and was in a relationship with Cusack, said Cusack was “anxious” about Jonathan Morgan joining the club after her experience of working with him at Leicester City. Riglar told the inquest that Morgan had made comments about Cusack’s weight and her relationship while he was Sheffield United’s women’s team manager.
“Maddy Cusack's teammate says coach Jonathan Morgan called her 'psycho' and played mind games before her death.”
“I think it was stuff she told me about her previous experience prior to Jonathan coming to Sheffield,” Riglar said. “I think she said that they played a game against a team while Jonathan was the manager. She had done something on the pitch and Jonathan called her a psycho from the sideline. I don’t think she let anyone know those types of comments affected her, but they did and they made her uncomfortable.”
Riglar added that Cusack thought the coach had made a “personal attack” on her by not putting her in the starting line-up for matches. “She was used to starting every game, she was an important member of the team. When Jonathan came, she was in and out from the starting team a bit. Her going from starting, to being on the bench quite a lot... she saw that as a setback. That impacted her a lot. 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. She just felt those little things were intentional.”
Riglar also described how Morgan made comments about Cusack’s relationship with her. When Morgan joined the club, he told the players in the first meeting that if anyone was in a relationship within the team, they had to tell him. “She found it uncomfortable when Jonathan would call me ‘Mrs Cusack’, especially in front of other players,” Riglar said. “We wanted to keep our relationship very professional. The football side and relationship side were very separate.”
The inquest also heard that Morgan made a comment about Cusack’s weight, after which she changed her eating and exercise habits, including not eating carbohydrates, skipping breakfast and going for extra runs after training. Riglar noted: “She was one of the fittest players on the team anyway.”
Riglar told the inquest that Morgan joining United was a big cause of Cusack’s stress. The inquest continues.