Inquest into death of Maddy Cusack to be held in January

An inquest into the death of former Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack has been scheduled for five days from January 5.

The dates have been listed provisionally for a number of months online but Chesterfield Coroners Court confirmed on Friday that the intention was for the inquest to go ahead then.

Cusack died aged 27, and was found at her home address in Lady Lea Road, Horsley, Derbyshire on September 20, 2023. The police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

Her family sent a written complaint to Sheffield United within a week of her death alleging she had been facing issues arising from her relationship with the team’s head coach at the time, Jonathan Morgan.

A Football Association investigation was opened in January 2024, with the governing body saying at the time that its purpose was “to understand whether or not any further action is required under our jurisdiction within football”.

Mr Morgan was sacked by Sheffield United in February last year after information came to light about a relationship he had with a player while he was in charge at Leicester, but his dismissal was not related to the FA investigation.

Sheffield United’s own investigation, which concluded in December 2023, found no evidence of wrongdoing.

In April, the legal team representing Maddy’s family told a pre-inquest review hearing that the family had concerns over a “lack of transparency” in the copy of the FA’s investigation report they had received, saying it contained a large number of redactions.

Stephen Walsh KC, legal counsel for the FA, said at the same hearing that the coroner was given “unfettered access” to all material which “assists with determining the scope”.

The FA report will not be published until after the conclusion of the inquest.

The coroner told the court that WhatsApp messages between Cusack and Morgan would form part of the disclosure bundle as well as a recording of a Microsoft Teams video call between them.