Coach called Maddy Cusack a 'psycho', inquest told

The coach of former Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack had called her a "psycho" and was playing mind games with her before her death, an inquest has heard.

Cusack, 27, was found unconscious by her father David at their family home in Horsley, Derbyshire, on 20 September 2023 and died the same day.

An inquest at Chesterfield Coroner's Court heard on Tuesday that Jonathan Morgan had made comments about Cusack's weight and her relationship while he was Sheffield United's women's team manager.

Grace Riglar, who played for the team and was in a relationship with Cusack, said Cusack was "anxious" about Morgan joining the club after her experience of working with him at Leicester City.

At the inquest, she said: "I think it was stuff she told me about her previous experience prior to Jonathan coming to Sheffield.

"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."

She told the inquest Morgan joining United was a big cause of Cusack's stress.

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Riglar added Cusack thought the coach had made a "personal attack" on her by not putting her in the starting line-up for matches.

She said: "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 told the inquest that Morgan also made comments about Cusack's relationship with her.

When Morgan joined the club, Riglar said, he told the players in the first meeting that if anyone was in a relationship within the team, they had to tell him.

Riglar added: "She found it uncomfortable when Jonathan would call me 'Mrs Cusack', especially in front of other players.

"We wanted to keep our relationship very professional. The football side and relationship side were very separate."

Riglar told the court that Morgan made a comment about Cusack's weight and that she changed her eating and exercise habits, including not eating carbohydrates, skipping breakfast and going for extra runs after training.

Riglar added: "She was one of the fittest players on the team anyway."

She told the coroner that Cusack had become "paranoid" at the start of the new season.

Riglar said: "She didn't really have anyone she could speak to without it getting back to Jonathan."

The inquest heard Cusack had a sick note from a doctor to have time off playing part-time and her full-time marketing job at Sheffield United.

She had also been prescribed anti-anxiety medication, the inquest heard.

Cusack, the inquest heard, told her girlfriend before her death that she wanted to move to Dubai and be a flight attendant, and had been looking for a new job online.

Riglar added: "She didn't want to go back to playing football. I don't think she really knew how to get out of that situation."

Eoin Doyle, who worked as Cusack's line manager in United's marketing department, gave evidence on Tuesday afternoon.

He told the court he was with Cusack when she first saw Morgan after he took over as manager at the club.

Doyle said: "She was anxious about whether she should go up and say hello to him and Maddy is usually a confident young woman."

He added it was "different to how I would see her approach someone else."

Doyle said in August 2023, Cusack asked him to talk with him after work, where he felt she was "confiding" in him.

He said: "She spoke about a lot of things. It did not feel like there was a singular problem.

"It was not the Maddy I knew... she was sunken into herself."

Doyle described how Maddy had talked to him about a number of things including, her housing situation and that she was thinking of selling her house, how she felt she was of an age she should have a long-term partner, how she wanted to progress in her marketing career, how football was "different" now, and she was dealing with "personal stuff".

He said: "Maddy asked if gong full-time in the marketing team would be an option again and I said 'yes, of course'."

He described his conversation with Cusack as "concerning, not alarming".

Doyle also said that around the time of that conversation Cusack generally "seemed anxious" for example "fretting" that she had accidentally parked in a cycle lane which "did not seem like the Maddy I knew".

He also said Morgan spoke with him around the same time and said Morgan called Cusack "love sick", when the two of them were discussing their concerns about her, referencing the fact Riglar had recently moved from United to a different club.

Asked by Morgan, who is representing himself in the inquest, if he interpreted the "love sick" comment as malicious, Doyle said he did not.

"I took it as concern but I still think [it was] ill-judged," he said.

The court also heard about the hours she was working for a salary totalling £28,00 for both roles.

Dean Armstrong KC, representing the family, told the the court Cusack's working hours were 28 hours for marketing and 22 hours playing football.

"What was being asked of Maddy here is a 50 hour week. That would put her outside the Working Time Directive," he said.

Doyle responded that after Cusack went off sick on 6 September he had spoken to a colleague from HR about how they could make changes to her role to help her.

He added he never thought the player would hurt herself and she had not given any indication she would.

The inquest continues.

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