Jonathan Morgan, Maddy Cusack's former manager at Sheffield United Women, labelled her as “generally a liar” during a Football Association investigation into her death, an inquest has heard. Cusack died in Derbyshire on 20 September 2023 at the age of 27. Chesterfield coroner’s court heard evidence last week from her parents, who believe Morgan was integral to her mental health deteriorating.
Morgan's evidence to the court
Giving evidence on Monday, Morgan denied ever shouting at Cusack or calling her a “psycho” and said he had been concerned about her wellbeing. He admitted calling Cusack “bottom-heavy” during a meeting with her and the team’s physio, but said he was referring to the muscles in her legs while discussing a new strength-and-conditioning programme, not her weight.
Separate to the inquest, the FA conducted its own investigation after Cusack’s death. While findings have not been published, hundreds of pages of evidence were made available to the coroner. In a 9 May 2024 interview with the FA, Morgan said it was “hard to be negative about someone who has died” but that “she was generally a liar.” Defending those comments, Morgan said: “There’s definitely evidence to show Maddy omitted information to her family about my support for her,” and cited “a lot of one-sided information provided at that time” in the media after her death.
Previous coaching relationship
Morgan accepted he had “struggled to manage” Cusack during their time at Leicester City in 2018, when she left the club midway through the season. He said her departure was due to a “lack of playing time,” adding: “It hadn’t worked from a footballing point of view.” When arriving at Sheffield United in 2023, he asked his assistant Luke Turner to “help me get the best out of her.”
During a lengthy and tense exchange with the family’s legal representative, Dean Armstrong KC, Morgan was probed about omitting Cusack from his starting lineup for his first match in charge. He stressed he had received medical advice from physio Francesca Carr that Cusack was not fit for selection, which concurred with Carr’s court comments on 20 September 2024. Cusack’s medical records were lost during a switch to a different records-keeping system, according to Sheffield United’s former club doctor, Subhashis Basu.
Allegations of humiliation
Armstrong suggested Morgan had been “trying to make a point” by leaving Cusack out to illustrate “I’m the boss,” but Morgan said: “She was injured when I first came in. I’m not really sure that’s me ‘showing who is boss’.” Morgan said Cusack had suffered a setback in recovery from an injury sustained in December 2022 due to “overloading,” and had swelling around the injury.
Morgan also said his desired “high-pressing” playing style, requiring high-speed running, accelerations, and decelerations, was better suited to others initially. He said Cusack was “very good at the endurance side” but not as well-suited to intense, shorter sprints. He believed she would have felt at home under predecessor Neil Redfearn, but added: “I saw her play very, very well towards the back end of the season [spring 2023] – by the end of the season, with work on it, she was a regular starter.”
Concerns about wellbeing
Morgan said he had been concerned about Cusack’s wellbeing in August 2023 when he noticed her looking “dishevelled.” He explained: “[Normally] Maddy, when she came to training, prided herself on her kit looking quite well washed, quite well presented [but] it got to the point where I thought she’d just got out of bed and turned up. That wasn’t the Maddy, from a presentation point of view, that any of us were used to.” He spoke to her, and her main concerns were that she did not feel her house had been a good investment. Feedback from his captain and assistant manager was that Cusack was “missing Grace,” her girlfriend Grace Riglar, who had left Sheffield United for Lewes FC in summer 2023, resulting in a long-distance relationship.
Morgan was asked about claims he humiliated Cusack by calling Riglar “Mrs Cusack” in front of the team, which he said “never happened.” He admitted saying, in front of only Cusack and Riglar, “here are the girlfriends,” which he called “a tongue-in-cheek comment” and “a bit of banter,” adding: “I know it was banter because their next banter [back] was about my weight and we preceded to laugh together.”
Morgan’s evidence session will resume on Tuesday. The inquest is scheduled to last until Friday.
