Maddy Cusack did not want Sheffield United to know about talks with the club’s former coach, an investigation has revealed Sheffield United Women

The former team coach at Sheffield United told the inquest into Maddy Cusack’s death that he repeatedly asked her not to inform the club that he had been speaking to her.

Dr Delroy Hall volunteered for the Sheffield United role from 2017 until November 2023, almost two months after Cusack’s death on 20 September 2023. Hall told the court on Wednesday that he thought players would come to him to discuss problems “as a last resort”. Cusack spoke to her several times in August 2023, including most notably on August 23, and Hall said she asked him three or four times: “Please don’t tell anyone I’m talking to you.”

Hall told the court he did not believe Cusack appeared to be at risk of self-harm but had told her he felt the pressure of trying to juggle his football and advertising career. He also worked for the group’s marketing department on two contracts. Hall said: “Training and work meant he was busy seven days a week.”

Hall recalled telling Cusack that her working hours were “unsustainable”, adding: “I felt she was doing a lot.” He remembered that he had also said that he had to drive four hours to see his girlfriend, who left to join Lewes FC in the summer of 2023. He told the court that he gave her advice on coping strategies such as breathing techniques. Hall added that he resigned from his voluntary role in November 2023 – after supporting some of Cusack’s colleagues after his death – because he did not know who to report to at the club.

The court also heard evidence from two Sheffield United officials on Wednesday: the chief executive, Stephen Bettis, and the head of football management, Carl Shieber. Both men were investigated for the reasons why it took so long for the club to inform the female players that they were changing to full time, after the end of the 2022-23 season, because at the beginning of the investigation the court heard evidence that this change of “pace” caused pressure on the players and staff.

The court was told on Wednesday that the delay was part of the need to wait for the confirmation of the men’s team to go up to the Premier League, as it was postponed to 26 April 2026, and the approval of the funding board, and that it would not be possible for the women’s team to progress to full status without funding from the men’s side. Shieber also pointed out that at one point it was mentioned that the sponsorship of the women’s team might be withdrawn altogether.

Shieber also told the court that when Jonathan Morgan was appointed manager of the women’s team in February 2023, he was told by the former head of women’s football, Zoe Johnson, that Morgan was “an idiot” on the sidelines during one game but felt he was the strongest candidate and encouraged Morgan to talk to Shieber. He added that he thought Morgan had been “very transparent” when interviewing for the job.

Shieber also told the court that no one had ever told him that Cusack was struggling to juggle both of his roles at the club. Bettis said she had never been informed that Cusack was fighting pressure to quit her job.

Bettis defended the club’s handling of the transformation of the women’s team into a full-fledged one and insisted the club had come “in leaps and bounds” in the past three years. At one point, an investigator intervened to break up a heated exchange between Bettis and the family’s attorney.

Bettis told the inquest that he had repeatedly pushed the board to increase the budget of the women’s club but felt that the financial situation of women’s football was “unsustainable at the moment,” and said: “At that time. [the 2022-23 season] we were losing about £750,000 a year on women’s football. Going full time at that time would double that.

“This season [2026-27] we will lose over £2m. The reality of women’s football is that it is currently unsustainable in its current form. There is a lot of interest from the WSL [Women’s Super League] continuing to push the product, which I completely understand and respect, but the revenue is not there.

“The burden is on the shoulders of football clubs to invest, but we have been pushing internally to support women’s football, we believe in it. [With greater] spreading money, it becomes a sustainable vehicle.” Bettis added that he thinks recovery is four or five years away.

Bettis also told the court that he felt “Maddy was an amazing person”, adding: “There is always an opportunity to open up opportunities for her in advertising. [at the club] to continue his career after football. “

The inquest is scheduled to continue on Thursday.