After an agonising three years and eight gruelling days in a Chesterfield courtroom, the Cusack family were told yesterday that they must wait another five months for the answers they so desperately seek about the death of their daughter Maddy. Every day, they walked into the Coroner’s Court in the sleepy market town for the inquiry into their daughter’s death, greeting every lawyer and member of the press with a warm ‘good morning’, and every late afternoon they headed home to unpack what they had heard.They hoped they were heading for the end of this latest ordeal but the court was told that additional documents had been lodged and that further witnesses needed to be called, hence the delay.It has been nearly three years since Maddy Cusack was found dead at the family home in Horsley, Derbyshire, by her father, David. She was 27. It was September 20, 2023, and in footballing terms it was the beginning of a new season.But Cusack had been signed off sick by Sheffield United for a couple of weeks and had returned to the family home amid deteriorating mental health. No longer did she feel able to attend the club she had grown up supporting, proudly pulling on the No 8 shirt every weekend for the women’s team as well as carrying out her role in the club’s marketing department.In her final weeks, Cusack had been accepting help from various sources. She had spoken to the club doctor, a private GP and a psychology lecturer and had been prescribed anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills. Her mother, Deborah, described how Maddy didn’t want anyone else at Bramall Lane, including the team’s manager, Jonathan Morgan, to know she was dealing with mental health issues. It has been nearly three years since Maddy Cusack was found dead at her family home in Horsley, Derbyshire, by her father, David. She was just 27 Cusack’s family and former team-mate Sophie Barker (left) attend a Premier League game where tributes are paid to Maddy Deborah recounted in court, how on the Friday prior to Maddy’s death she had made a joke in the car and there had been a ‘brightness in her eyes’. Deborah had turned around to her other daughter, Olivia, and said: ‘I think we have her back.’ The following Wednesday, the Cusacks were forced to endure every parent’s worst nightmare.’We thought she was depressed, not suicidal,’ her father David told the court on the first day of the inquest, as he struggled to find the words to recount what had happened.The path the Cusack family have been on to reach this point has been full of frustration and setbacks. It began a week after Maddy’s death, when they sent a written complaint to Sheffield United outlining a range of issues she had been facing, which they said stemmed from her treatment by Morgan.Sheffield United commissioned a third-party investigation following the complaint, which concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing by anyone connected to the club. The FA then confirmed they were formally investigating the matter. Their findings form part of the evidence before the Coroner’s Court and will be published after the conclusion of the inquest.Then, in February 2024, Morgan was sacked by Sheffield United after details emerged of a relationship he had with a player while working at Leicester City. The club said the dismissal was unrelated to the FA’s investigation into Cusack’s death, but it was welcomed by the family at the time.Over the ensuing months, the inquest was met by numerous delays. First in 2025, when the family expressed concerns about a ‘lack of transparency’ after the FA report they received contained a large number of redactions, with whole pages blacked out or missing.A date was finally set for January of this year until, 10 days before Christmas, the family received 699 pages of new evidence from Sheffield United. The family’s lawyers at the time described this as ‘totally unacceptable’, although the coroner agreed with the club’s position that it had complied with directions. Another delay.And then over these last two weeks, those closest to Cusack had finally filed into the overcrowded courtroom – which one family member described as more akin to a school classroom – and listened to the evidence. It seemed they were finally going to get some closure on a tragedy that has rocked women’s football. The media interest on the first day meant the court usher had to source extra chairs and the door couldn’t be closed. Those in the room heard how Maddy was not only highly regarded on the pitch – the only member of her Sheffield United squad to have represented England at youth level – but also a dedicated and driven athlete who was an inspiration to young girls harbouring their own dreams of kicking a ball around for a living. Sheffield United’s former manager Jonathan Morgan represented himself in court and in his questioning, he asked witness after witness whether they had ever seen him bullying Cusack. ‘No’ was the reply from two witnesses ‘From the age of 18 months on Mablethorpe beach, if there was a ball at her feet, she was happy,’ Maddy’s mother Deborah said on the first day of the inquest’From the age of 18 months on Mablethorpe beach, if there was a ball at her feet, she was happy,’ Deborah said on the first day of the inquest.After spells at Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa in her childhood, Cusack’s family described how she spent a year in the top flight with Birmingham before signing her first professional contract with Leicester in 2019, convinced by then manager Morgan – whose father owned the club, whose sister was in the squad and whose other sister was then general manager of the women’s team. Morgan had claimed that a takeover of Leicester City Women by Thai conglomerate King Power – the owners of the men’s team – was imminent and that it would bring significant money into the club. But when the takeover failed to immediately materialise and Cusack’s own difficulties with working alongside Morgan began to emerge, Cusack joined Sheffield United, sealing a move in the January transfer window.’She left because she had never come across a character like that before in football,’ David said on Monday, referring to Morgan. Morgan later said that their differences at Leicester were based on ‘a massive gap in terms of what her expectations were and where we were’.At Sheffield United from 2019, Cusack started work at the club’s Community Trust alongside a part-time playing role, before later joining the club’s marketing department armed with a first-class honours degree from the University of Derby.By 2023, Cusack was ‘the first name on the team sheet’ and had close relationships with both Carla Ward, her manager when she joined, and later Neil Redfearn. Deborah told the court how her daughter once excitedly called her from outside Bramall Lane, where her image had been plastered on the side of the stadium, and Sheffield United chief executive Stephen Bettis remembered joking with Cusack after matchdays about her willingness to stand up to referees.She was, as her family reminded the court, ‘Miss Sheffield United’. The club’s ‘poster girl’ and their first player to reach 100 appearances for the women’s side. She also bought her own house with her earnings, which she was ‘very proud of’. Over Christmas 2022, she ‘was the happiest she’s ever been’, David recalled. But, as the family have maintained throughout, Morgan’s appointment in February 2023 was the turning point.’We’d taken the view that he was in our rear-view mirror from 2018,’ David said. ‘From when he was appointed at Sheffield United, she seldom played. She took it that it was “here we go again”.’ Asked what factors she believed contributed to Cusack’s death, Grace Riglar (right), a former team-mate and partner of Maddy, said Morgan joining Sheffield United was a ‘big part’ Deborah Cusack, Maddy’s mother, described Morgan (pictured) as her daughter’s ‘nemesis’, adding he had wanted to ‘cut her down to size’ and be ‘in control’The family described how Morgan had called her a ‘psycho’ at a previous club, had called her girlfriend Grace Riglar ‘Mrs Cusack’ in front of team-mates despite their desire to keep their relationship private within the squad, and how comments about her weight, including calling her ‘bottom heavy’, led her to make unhealthy changes to her diet and exercise regime. Deborah described Morgan as her daughter’s ‘nemesis’, adding he had wanted to ‘cut her down to size’ and be ‘in control’.’The girls who were sidelined by Mr Morgan used to have a group chat,’ Deborah said. ‘They used to send text messages where they referred to themselves as being “imprisoned” when sidelined, “on parole” when playing, and Jonathan Morgan as a “prison warden”.’Morgan, meanwhile, was representing himself throughout the inquest, a complicating factor when it came to the cross-examination of the family’s evidence. Bullish in his questioning, he asked witness after witness whether they had ever seen him bullying Cusack. His assistant, Luke Turner, said he had not seen Morgan bully Cusack. The club doctor, who said he attended every match day, said the same.Naomi Hartley, Cusack’s former team-mate, agreed, adding: ‘No, I just think a lot of people were intimidated by you.’Morgan said he had no concerns about his relationship with Cusack when he joined the club as manager, despite acknowledging there would be anxiety on her behalf after he had released her from Leicester. He told the inquest how he had been impressed by her performances when he joined and was ‘really happy’ to have her in his team – and made her vice-captain to show it.He also claimed the ‘Mrs Cusack’ comment never happened. ‘It was banter, a tongue-in-cheek moment, where I said, “here’s the girlfriends”.’Riglar, who had to fight back tears multiple times during questioning, was asked by Morgan whether she could be certain of comments she had not heard first-hand. He asked: ‘So, you don’t personally recall me calling Maddy “fat”?’ to which Riglar replied: ‘No.’ Sister Felicia, mother Deborah and brother Paul have been seeking answers about Maddy’s death The world of women’s football has been rocked by the death of Cusack Asked what factors she believed contributed to Cusack’s death, Riglar said Morgan joining Sheffield United was a ‘big part’, adding: ‘You can’t blame one person, but I do think that was a big reason.’In his statement to the FA, it was revealed Morgan described Cusack as ‘generally a liar’ for misrepresenting his relationship with her. He claimed he had helped her by making her lunch between shifts and had given her financial advice about her mortgage, which she was starting to feel the strain of.He also said he had worked hard to secure her a new contract. This came about in the summer of 2023, when the women’s team transitioned from part-time to full-time, a process which David called a ‘shambles’. The court heard how Maddy’s attempts to juggle more footballing hours alongside her marketing role meant she would have to dash from training to work without time to shower in between. For someone who took pride in her appearance, this proved stressful. She reached the point where she was often working seven days a week, particularly if a week involved an away game and overnight stays. The departure of many of her friends to other clubs, including Riglar to Lewes in East Sussex, also had an impact.Later, when she had signed off sick from work at the beginning of September, Cusack feared the repercussions if the club found out. Struggling with not wanting to let the club that she loved down but also having lost the joy in her lifelong hobby, Cusack began to consider moving away from football. ‘She didn’t want to go back to playing football. I don’t think she really knew how to get out of that situation,’ Riglar said. ‘She asked me: “If I wasn’t a footballer, would you still love me?”‘There is still more to be uncovered. The club doctor, Subhasis Basu, is set to be recalled, as is the club’s physio, Francesca Carr. The FA are yet to present their findings and they will also give evidence in December, alongside Vicki Anderson, Sheffield United’s head of HR.And in circumstances that would have tested even the most resilient family, and against a backdrop of persistent social media posts by Morgan’s sister, Holly, which accused the media of bias, the Cusack family conducted themselves with dignity, grace and stoicism throughout. Tributes are paid to Cusack at a Sheffield United women’s match in 2023They were all these things once again when, on Thursday, the court was abruptly adjourned and they were informed that it would not meet again until the end of the year.One issue behind the delay, revisited throughout the hearing, has been Cusack’s fitness during the early stages of Morgan’s tenure. The family maintain she was dropped for his first game in charge without justification, while Morgan and the club’s former physio Carr have said she was carrying an injury. Complicating matters further is the fact her full medical records from that period have not been located.Before adjourning proceedings, the coroner, Sophie Cartwright, directed Sheffield United to undertake further searches of its Microsoft Teams and Google Drive systems, as well as a ‘forensic audit’ of Cusack’s health records on the club’s internal platform in the months before her death.As for Cusack’s family, they are desperate to ensure they do not spend another Christmas with this hanging over their heads. They are hopeful that December 7 will remain the date of the inquest’s conclusion.By the time it resumes, another anniversary and birthday without Maddy will have come and gone. But while the wait for answers continues, not for a minute has the late Maddy Cusack’s legacy ever been in doubt.For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch. See www.samaritans.org for details