Maddy Cusack Inquest: Sheffield United Warned of Morgan's Bullying Before Her Death

An inquest at Chesterfield Coroner's Court has heard that Sheffield United received warnings about their women's head coach Jonathan Morgan's bullying conduct before the death of midfielder Maddy Cusack, who was found dead at her home in Horsley, Derbyshire, on 20 September 2023. She was 27.

The proceedings have placed Morgan's behaviour at the centre of the family's account of what drove Cusack's mental health decline. Her father, David Cusack, told the inquest that Morgan's conduct was the most significant cause of the deterioration in his daughter's mental health, according to The Independent. That claim is contested by none of the verified facts on record, though the coroner's formal conclusion has not been reported in the sources available.

The specifics emerging from evidence are stark. Morgan is alleged to have called Cusack a "psycho" and made comments about her weight and her relationship. A player and friend of Cusack also sent an email to Sheffield United alleging that Morgan's behaviour had affected multiple team-mates — a communication the club received before her death. The Independent reported both details as part of its inquest coverage on 30 June 2026.

BBC News reported that Cusack feared being stigmatised and ridiculed at the club in the period before she died — a detail that, taken alongside the email warning to the club, raises direct questions about what Sheffield United knew, when they knew it, and what action, if any, they took.

Morgan has since been sacked as Sheffield United Women's head coach. The Cusack family said they "welcome" the dismissal, per The Independent.

The institutional dimension here matters. Elite sport's duty-of-care obligations — both moral and, in English law, under health and safety and employment frameworks — require clubs to act on credible complaints about abusive management conduct. The timeline as disclosed at inquest suggests the club had a warning signal before the worst outcome. How that signal was assessed, escalated, or ignored will likely be a focal point as the inquest continues and as any subsequent review or legal process unfolds.

Cusack's death, and the inquest testimony now entering the public record, arrives at a moment when women's football in England is navigating a rapid professionalisation that has not always been matched by equivalent investment in welfare infrastructure. The Football Association's commitment to duty-of-care standards in the women's game has been repeatedly tested in recent years, and cases like this one place pressure on both governing bodies and clubs to demonstrate that complaint mechanisms are substantive rather than procedural.

The inquest is ongoing. No verdict has been reported in the available sources. The full picture of what Sheffield United did or did not do with the warnings they received remains, at this stage, a matter for the coroner.