Maddy Cusack ‘would still be alive if coach had not joined Sheffield United’, inquest told
Former Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack would still be alive if the women’s team coach had not been appointed at the club, her mother told the inquest.
Chesterfield Coroner’s Court heard Ms Cusack, 27, was found unresponsive at her home in Horsley, Derbyshire, on September 20, 2023, after her manager Jonathan Morgan made comments about her weight and relationship to “belittle her”.
Ms Cusack’s family lodged a written complaint with Sheffield United after her death, outlining problems alleged to have arisen from her relationship with Mr Morgan.
On Thursday, Ms Cusack’s mother, Deborah Cusack, told the inquest that Mr Morgan was like an “enemy” to her daughter, who was referred to as the “prison warden” in messages between team-mates.
Cross-examined by Mr Morgan, who represented her at the inquest, Ms Cusack said: “You must understand that I don’t blame you for what he did but you made him feel how he felt.
“There were little bumps every now and then, you had to come in and make it smaller.
“He was one of United’s best-known players. You had to be in control, like you did at Leicester (City).
“There’s a direct line; if you hadn’t been hired, Maddy would be here today.”
Ms Cusack said her daughter, who also works in the club’s marketing department, was “absolutely devastated” that Mr Morgan joined the club because of her experience working with him at Leicester City years ago and was concerned “history was repeating itself”.
He told the court: “It’s like your enemy is coming back, isn’t it?
“As a family, we have never encountered such a character before. We do not play mind games.”
Speaking of Miss Cusack’s time playing under Mr Morgan at Leicester, the mother said: “She had a very, very terrible time there.
“He was happy to be out of that situation. It was a terrible time.”
The inquest heard Mr Morgan called Ms Cusack “pot-bellied” after joining United, which led to the player “trying to get fitter and leaner” by changing her eating habits and going for runs after training.
Ms Cusack said: “This undermined Madeleine and shook her confidence and everything she knew because you were questioning her fitness.”
He told the inquest that players suspended by Mr Morgan would send text messages between each other to “get them through”.
He said: “They say they were in prison when they were on the sidelines, they were on parole when they were playing and Jonathan Morgan was the prison warden.
“All of these actors left later because they could. Madeleine had her own (marketing) business.
“He was really on his own. I thought he felt lonely and isolated because of that. By this time he had no trust in anything.”
Francesca Carr, the team’s former physiotherapist, agreed on Wednesday that it would have been “best” for Ms Cusack not to be included in the starting lineup for Mr Morgan’s first competitive game for the club due to her ankle injury.
Ms Cusack said her daughter’s relationship with Grace Riglar, who also plays for United, was “no problem” and that they had accepted her into their family.
The team’s former captain, Sophie Barker, told the inquest on Wednesday that she thought the main reason for Ms Cusack’s decline in mental health was Ms Riglar’s move to another football club further away.
Ms. Cusack said she didn’t think that was true.
He said: “They were still very happy. Yeah, it wasn’t ideal. That’s not unusual in football.”
“I didn’t think it would be a problem to continue this relationship in the future, and I didn’t get that vibe from Madeleine either.”
At the inquest, Mr Morgan told the inquest his daughter would have been “incredibly humiliated” if he called Ms Riglar “Mrs Cusack” in front of her team-mates because he wanted to keep the relationship private.
Ms Cusack said the club’s doctor, Dr Subhashis Basu, called her husband after their daughter died and asked if they would be willing to donate Ms Cusack’s brain for research, but they refused.
Dr Basu told the inquest on Thursday that Ms Cusack’s medical records from her time at United had been lost.
When asked by deputy coroner Sophie Cartwright KC why she did not bring this matter to the attention of the coroner, Dr. Basu said: “If I had been asked this question directly, I would have done it.”
Dean Armstrong KC, representing Ms Cusack’s family, asked Dr Basu why he had not gone to United’s data protection officer about the data loss.
He said: “My view was to contact the medical records company first to try to resolve the issue. I think I have raised the issue.”
He later added: “I was slow to report this. I finally brought it up.”
The investigation continues.
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