How Ella Toone is navigating grief through football

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: Sport InsightHow Toone is navigating grief through footballPublished59 minutes agoImage source, Getty ImagesBySophie TrifonoffBBC Sport journalistThere will be an empty chair at Ella Toone's wedding this summer. The England and Manchester United midfielder is preparing to walk down the aisle without her dad Nick - the man she dedicates every goal to and credits as the "main reason" where she is in her career. In a new documentary, 24 Hours with Ella Toone, she opens up on grief and navigating that as a professional athlete, while also ensuring her father's legacy and being a "pioneer for women's football" is now helping the next generation.

Toone knew that hours after every match, she would always get a phone call from Nick. He and her mum, Karen, would always come to watch Toone's matches, but Nick also recorded them on TV so he could have another look when he got home before calling his daughter for a "debrief on the whole game". "He was just obsessed," says the 26-year-old.

The Details

"He loved women's football more than he loved watching the men's game. He knew all the players, he was passionate about where I was in my career, the team that I had, the way we were playing. "He would go into any pub and talk about women's football and talk about me.

"Toone adds her dad was "the driving force" behind her football, taking her up and down the country for club matches and travelling abroad for England games. "Me and dad were all about football, that was our thing that we had together," she reveals. "He was probably one of the first people that really saw potential in me.

" Figure caption, 24 Hours with Ella TooneThe day after Toone scored in England's 2-1 win over Germany in the 2022 European Championship final, she had no idea her dad had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer as he had only told his wife and brother. "He didn't want anyone worrying about him," she explains. "He wasn't well throughout the tournament.

What Experts Say

I'm finding out more and more about it now that he's not here. "It was not until the day after her Manchester United team won the FA Cup final at Wembley in May 2024 that she learned he was ill. "I feel like every time I won something, something bad came after," she says.

Nick died three days before his 60th birthday - five after Toone turned 25 - in September 2024. The following day she was back in training. "I went straight back into football because I knew that's what he would have wanted," she says.

"I started the first game at Old Trafford, it was really difficult, but I felt like that's what I needed to do in that moment. I needed to play, I couldn't just be sat around moping about, thinking about it all the time. I knew he would have been there and been watching.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.