Ella Toone has penned a heartfelt tribute to her father, who she lost to cancer last September a few days before his 60th birthday, describing how she is ‘still processing’ but ‘wanted to write this, for anyone grieving and feeling alone’.
Toone, who came off the bench to score in the Euros final in 2022, has chosen to address the devastating loss for the first time in a candid open letter to fans in The Players Tribune.
‘For the past few months, I’ve been trying to figure it all out, trying to get unstuck,’ the Manchester United No 7 says. ‘It’s still raw. I still feel the pain digging in, the gutting feeling of not having him here anymore.’
A mainstay for club and country, Toone, 25, describes how her father, Nick, was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly after that historic Euros triumph.
‘He said the day after we won the Euros, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He’d fought it for a whole year without telling us, and it had gone. And then it came back. But he didn’t let on how bad it was. I tried to ask questions, but he’d just palm it off,’ she says.
The forward, who has recently returned from injury and has been in flying form – including netting a hat-trick in the Manchester derby last weekend – shares how Nick played a pivotal role in sparking her love of football, recalling how he’d give her £10 for every goal she scored in the early stages of her career.
Lionesses star Ella Toone has written a heartfelt tribute to her father Nick after his death in September of last year
The Manchester United forward has opened up on the impact of grieving and the importance of support she has received from team-mates
‘My first game he told me, “Every goal you score, I’ll give you a tenner.” Me being competitive me, I was absolutely buzzing. I really took after Dad in how competitive I was. I seriously had to win everything. (I’m still like this).
‘So you can imagine how I lit up for 10 quid. Ended up winning 10-nil…. And I scored all 10 goals. I think prize money went down a bit after that!’
Toone also described how she has taken great comfort in the support of her Lionesses teammates Beth Mead and Rachel Daly, who have both lost parents in recent years, saying: ‘Now, when people ask, “Who do you look up to?” I say it’s people like Beth Mead and Rach Daly, who’ve continued to play football and be an inspiration after losing someone they love.
‘They’ve helped me, massively. I hope that in the future I can do the same for people in my life who might be going through the same thing.’