Manchester United Women’s Ella Toone has paid an emotional tribute to her father who died last September.
The England international received the terrible news of the loss of her dad at the start of the season and soon got injured in the autumn.
Toone has returned in magnificent form after the winter break and has scored five goals in four games since Christmas, including a sensational hat trick versus Manchester City in the league.
Writing in The Players’ Tribune, she opened up on the darkest time of her career.
“When he passed, it was a big shock, even to some of the people closest to him, because no one hardly knew he was ill,” Toone wrote. “People ask me now, ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’ And I’m like, I didn’t know either. I didn’t know half of it.”
“For the past few months, I’ve been trying to figure it all out, trying to get unstuck. It’s still raw. I still feel the pain digging in, the gutting feeling of not having him here anymore.”
The United number seven admitted that even months after his death that she still feels he will return and isn’t really gone.
The 25 year old also paid tribute to her father’s role in her development as a professional and told the amusing story of how he promised her £10 per goal as a six year old and had to part with £100 after she scored 10 goals in a match.
“Dad was always the one who kept me grounded, especially as the spotlight got bigger. I went from this little girl who wanted to play football and not really having many people to look up to in the women’s game, to being a part of it.”
Toone commented that she first noticed something was wrong when her Dad did not travel to see England take on Norway in Euro 2022 in Brighton as he usually always made the journey to see her matches.
Moreover, she also revealed that the first time she was made aware of the true severity of the situation was after last season’s FA Cup final victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
“I’m still processing. This is my first try at really talking about it. Like dad said, the Toones are not great at feelings. But I wanted to write this, for anyone grieving and feeling alone.”
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
