Maddy Cusack: A Family's Ongoing Wait for Answers
On a quiet bench in Scargill Park, the wait goes on.
The plaque bears Maddy Cusack’s name, but it is her laughter her family hear when they sit there. For her sister Olivia, Maddy was “the person I looked up to my whole life”. For cousin Emily Reilly, she was the ringleader – “the one who used to get us in trouble with my dad”.
Three years on from her death, those memories are vivid. The answers are not.
A family still waiting
Cusack, a midfielder for Sheffield United, was 27 when she was found unconscious at her home in Derbyshire on 20 September 2023. An inquest into her death finally opened in June this year and was expected to conclude in July.
Instead, it stalled.
The hearing has been paused for months while Sheffield United searches for documents linked to her medical records. The process has already been delayed twice. Now the family have been told they must wait until at least December to hear more evidence.
Olivia calls the delay “extremely overwhelming”.
“It is very emotional and you can find yourself frustrated at times,” she tells BBC Newsbeat. “They're very difficult days.”
The inquest sat for just under two weeks in July before the coroner adjourned. Evidence, including emotional testimony from Maddy’s mum, outlined how she had struggled with her mental health before her death and had experienced problems with Sheffield United coach Jonathan Morgan.
Morgan told the inquest he had “no concerns” about their relationship and insisted “things have not been portrayed factually or correctly with how she was feeling”.
As lawyers pored over messages, timelines and medical notes, Olivia felt something essential slipping through the cracks.
‘More than the number on her shirt’
“It dawned on me that when people were asked questions about Maddy and to share what she was like as a person, they were all very similar answers and quite focused on the football side of her,” she says.
“People don't seem to know her like we did – of course they don't. But I wanted to introduce a different side of Maddy.
“I wanted them to know more than the number on the back of her shirt or the colours that she wore on the football pitch.”
That other side lives on at the memorial bench in West Hallam, Derbyshire, where the three of them grew up. It is where Olivia and Emily come to talk to her, to mark the milestones she is missing.
Both have birthdays at the end of October. They were supposed to celebrate together.
“Now I just come here,” Emily says quietly.
Then the mischief resurfaces.
“She used to get us in trouble with my dad when we were younger. It was always her idea then I'd take the blame for it.”
Inside the coroner’s court, the focus has been on the darkest periods of Maddy’s life. Out here, her family fight to keep the warmth, the humour and the ambition in the picture too.
Carrying her story on
Since her death, Olivia and other family members have thrown their energy into a foundation in Maddy’s name, set up to support aspiring female footballers.
“The foundation keeps me going,” Olivia says. “It's been a real lifeline to be able to continue her story.”
On Saturday, that story moved along the roads between two places that defined Maddy’s career and her life. Olivia organised a walk from Bramall Lane, Sheffield United’s stadium, to near Derby, where Maddy lived – almost 30 miles on foot.
“The aim with the walk is just to do her proud,” she explains. “Maddy would love that we were all challenging ourselves.”
The club itself has already faced scrutiny. An external report commissioned by Sheffield United shortly after her death cleared the Blades of wrongdoing. A second investigation, ordered by the Football Association in early 2024, is complete but its findings will not be published until the inquest has finished.
So the legal process hangs in the air, frozen. The family’s determination does not.
“She will only ever remain a part of this life if we keep saying her name and keep remembering her,” Olivia says.
“And as painful as that can be on days where you want to forget and you just want to stay in bed all day and not face the world, I try and make a conscious effort to keep saying her name and keep her living alongside us ultimately.”
The paperwork may be stuck. The inquest may be on hold. But on that bench in Scargill Park, and on the long road between Bramall Lane and Derby, Maddy Cusack’s story is still being pushed forward, step by step, by the people who refuse to let her become just another case file.
