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'I signed Barcelona deal – then had a stroke at 24'

As England and Barcelona goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck sips her flat white in the Spanish sunshine outside her favourite coffee shop, she looks like a player who has the world at her feet.

But this is a very different picture from 12 months ago.

Last February she was told that, at the age of 24,she had suffered a strokeand was left fearing she would never play football again.

"I'm lucky because I should have lost my vision," she tells BBC Sport. "I should have lost my peripheral vision for sure. The majority of people that suffer a stroke [like mine] do that. So, I probably should have been blind, which is quite a miracle that that didn't happen."

Roebuck was part of the Lionesses squad that won the Euros in 2022 and reached the World Cup final in the summer of 2023. But the former Manchester City keeper could never have predicted that six months after that match in Sydney, her world would be turned upside down.

This is Roebuck's story – one of sport's remarkable comebacks.

I could have lost my vision – Roebuck on stroke

After returning from World Cup duty in Australia, Roebuck's season did not go to plan at Manchester City – a club she had been at since the age of 15, making her debut as a teenager in 2016.

The Sheffield-born keeper found herself frozen out of the first team and did not make an appearance in the first half of the season, but she was also struggling off the pitch.

It was around Christmas 2023 when Roebuck first started to feel like something was "not quite right", although she could not work out what it was.

She felt nauseous, dizzy, fatigued, a bit off balance and her eyesight started to be affected with black dots impairing her vision.

A ball had hit the back of her head in training, nothing unusual for a goalkeeper, so her symptoms were put down to that.

She was treated for concussion at her club but as January progressed Roebuck was certain it had to be something else.

"I knew it wasn't concussion," she said. "I've had concussion. I just knew something wasn't right. I said 'for my peace of mind I need a head scan, something is not right and I know it'."

When she got the call from the club doctor a couple of days after the scan asking her to come in immediately, she knew it was not going to be good news.

"It filled me with panic, but I never had in my mind that it was a stroke.

"He sat me down and was like, 'you've had an infarct in your left occipital lobe'. I asked 'what's that in English?' And then he said it was a type of stroke."

A stroke happens when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. That can lead to paralysis and in some cases, death. The occipital lobe is the visual processing area of the brain and a stroke in this area can cause an array of visual impairments.

Roebuck adds: "My first question was 'am I going to play football again?'"

Ellie Roebuck earned her last England call-up in October 2023

At the time no-one could give her an answer, and the timing could not have been worse as the diagnosis came just two weeks after she had formalised her exit from Manchester City by signing a pre-contract with European champions Barcelona, before a move in the summer.

But she quickly realised her worries went beyond football as she was sent straight from her appointment to accident and emergency for treatment.

"I was sat in A&E with all the people on a Thursday night that'd been out drinking. They'd come in with their cuts and bruises and I was just sat there [thinking] 'what is happening?' And then I got taken to the stroke ward which was something that I'd never really want to remember.

"You're in there with people that I thought were 'normal people' to have strokes – older people. It was just a crazy experience."

Because tests showed her stroke appeared to have happened three to four weeks earlier, there was little the hospital could do and she was sent home that night.

"The nurses said you can't carry shopping for six weeks. You can't do any exercise. I thought, 'I'm a professional footballer, I can't do that'."

Roebuck was not allowed to train for 12 weeks and was left to pick up the pieces, trying to figure out what had caused the stroke and constantly fearing it would happen again.

"I wouldn't walk my dog for like six weeks. I wouldn't leave the house. I was scared to do anything on my own. And that was never me, I was always super independent. My mum and dad were doing shifts of living with me in my one-bedroom flat in Manchester."

She underwent numerous tests in order to find out the cause of what had happened and eventually a tiny hole in her heart was discovered.

"[It] sounds crazy, but I was grateful that I had a hole in my heart because I'd found my reason and I knew that it could be closed and I could move on. I was almost excited that I was going in for heart surgery."

In surgery the hole was identified however a membrane had formed and doctors believed it had closed up by itself which left Roebuck frustrated again as it meant she would never fully understand what caused her stroke.

"You've almost got to think you've been given a second chance, but I'm also so angry that it happened, because I think 'why?'"

With a dream move to European heavyweights Barcelona on the line, Roebuck initially kept the news of her condition from her City team-mates.

She admits it was a lonely time, but she found support from two sportsmen who had been through similar experiences.

One was NFL Superbowl winner Tedy Bruschi, who had two strokes during his career. The other was former Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, who suffered a serious head injury during a game in 2006.

"I had a call with him for about two hours and it was amazing. Although it wasn't directly the same, it was someone I could relate to going through a similar thing.

"He touched on things that nobody else got. No matter how many times I tried to express myself, I couldn't. Nobody could relate to what I was going through.

"He is now a good friend of mine. He came to watch me train the other day in Barcelona. So, there are positives to come out of it – the new relationships I've formed."

Ellie Roebuck played alongside the likes of Jill Scott, Keira Walsh, Steph Houghton and Izzy Christiansen early in her Manchester City career

Roebuck did not play for Manchester City again after her stroke but she was able to complete her dream move to Barcelona in the summer.

Yet she says the way her final season was handled at a club where she made more than 100 appearances left her confidence "diminished".

"I just felt like maybe my relationship with the manager [Gareth Taylor] got fractured.

"I don't know whether that was me, maybe not hearing the clear communication or the fact that there just wasn't clear communication.

"I got my head down and I just tried to work every day, but I think it was a badly managed situation. I've always been professional. I just felt like the respect wasn't reciprocated in that same sense."

Roebuck says that while she was "devastated" to leave City, it made joining Barcelona, who have won three of the last four Champions League titles, a very easy decision.

However, she admits that her first training session with the club after six months out was a lot more difficult than she anticipated.

"After coming back from having a brain injury and then saying you've got to dive at someone's feet, it's not the prettiest. But I had to get through it.

"Barcelona showed trust in me and for me, that was more important than anybody saying you can have a starting role. It's the fact they showed confidence in me, and they wanted me here and they want to improve me.

"The girls are amazing. The top three Ballon d'Or nominees are all in this changing room and it was a shock how nice everybody is, it's crazy to me. I've never been a part of a team other than the England team that's like this.

"So, for me it's a perfect fit and I enjoy going in every day."

Now 25, Roebuck made herBarca debut in December in a 4-1 win over Real Betis,303 days after her diagnosis and more than 18 months since her last appearance.

"Everyone expected me to be nervous, but I felt fine the moment I stepped out there. That's the kind of the mantra I'm going for, every time I get that opportunity, I just want to enjoy it."

Ellie Roebuck is competing with Spain goalkeeper Cata Coll for the number one jersey at Barcelona

Roebuck says that while she thinks about the stroke every day and still battles symptoms like fatigue, she is very much focused on the future. And that also now includes her coffee bean roasting company.

"I feel like I value life a lot more. I was stuck in a real cycle of thinking football was everything.

"And I think for that period of time where I didn't know if I could be a footballer, it made me realise, you have to find something else. And that was hard because my whole personality was Ellie the footballer.

"I didn't know if I was going play again so it was just a great way to channel my energy and have that focus to distract myself. It's a perfect way to start and eventually hopefully one day the aim is to have a coffee shop.

"The biggest struggle is becoming a normal human again but luckily I've nearly been able to do that."

Roebuck, who has 11 England caps, says representing the Lionesses has always been the "highest privilege" in her career but that her comeback may have come too late for a recall in time for this summer's Euros.

"It's difficult because that's something that's not in my hands as such. Nothing is given. I know that's not an easy journey. And I know that I need to be playing consistently week in, week out, but for me it's more than that, it's a journey that I'm on.

"Now I'm prioritising the things that are most important, and that's being the best goalkeeper I can possibly be."

I was effectively homeless after getting sacked – Stoney

Casey Stoney was only meant to be returning to England temporarily last June for a funeral when she found herself stuck in the country, along with her family, unable to go back to their home in California.

Upon landing on British soil, the former England captain was informed by her agent that she had beensacked as head coach of NWSL club San Diego Wave.

"When I got fired, it terminated our visas with immediate effect whilst I was in the UK, pretty much rendering me and my partner homeless, with three children," she tells BBC Sport.

As she had been outside of the US when her sacking happened and her visa was dependent on her work, she had no way of returning without finding another sponsor.

That led to a turbulent few months for the 42-year-old, who was left questioning whether she even wanted to keep working in football.

Now the former Manchester United boss is taking on international management for the first time in her new role as Canada coach, and is finally back to doing what she loves – getting out on the training pitch and working with her players.

Former England defender Casey Stoney (right) joined newly formed club San Diego Wave in June 2021

Stoney, who won 130 caps for England and captained Great Britain at the 2012 Olympics, had been in charge of San Diego Wave for nearly three years afterresigning as Manchester United managerin 2021.

The NWSL club were a new franchise when she became head coach and she led them to third place and then top spot during the first two seasons.

They twice reached the semi-finals of the end-of-season play-offs, which crowns the league's champions, but her third season had not continued on the same trajectory with just three wins after 14 games.

She saw the job as a long-term project. She had experienced a painful spell apart from her partner, Megan, and three children – twins Teddy and Tilly and youngest child Willow – when she first moved to the US but they had eventually resolved their visa issues, enabling them to be reunited, and set up their family home in California.

"It took 22 months to get them out there, we were 22 months apart, we weren't even out there a year [together] and I lost my job," she says.

"If I'm honest, I didn't think I deserved to lose my job either, so that made it even tougher, with the successes that we had, we just had a little dip. It wasn't even anything major.

"So to be treated in that way, after everything that had been done and sacrificed and everything that had been achieved, it was really, really hard to swallow on a personal level, but it was more what happened to my family.

"I have three young children, they were nine and six at the time, they didn't have a home. So that, for me, is inexcusable to do to a family."

The day her children were supposed to be back at school in August in San Diego following their summer break came and went, so Stoney took on home-schooling herself.

It was a period she describes as "one of the hardest times in my life".

She says: "It did make me question if I wanted to stay in the game because if the game chews you up and spits you out like that, after everything that we had sacrificed to be there, and after what I had achieved in a short space of time, and what we had achieved as a club, it did make me question the game.

"I got offers quite quickly after the announcement and I said no to all of them, whether they were right or wrong, because I wanted to take time. I needed to make sure I sorted our lives out.

"My priority was my family [and] how do we get back to San Diego."

Casey Stoney, whose former clubs include Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, walked out to a guard of honour with her three children before her final match as a player in February 2018

It took four months for the family to get new visas, based on Stoney's consultancy work, enabling them to return to the US and "our lives". They had relied on family in England to provide a roof over their heads in the interim.

"[The children] missed two and a half months of education. They missed a lot of their life during that time."

She also had a lot of time for self-reflection and took the opportunity to visit different clubs as she reassessed her priorities.

"It just helped me get to a point where I was ready to get back in [to football] and I was very keen to get back in. At first I couldn't have thought of anything less that I wanted to be involved in and it just took a bit of time to heal the wounds."

The ex-England defender was spotted at her former club Arsenal, who were looking for a replacement for Jonas Eidevall while she was out of work, while other Women's Super League clubs also had vacancies during that time.

But then along came the Canada job.

At first she was unsure whether she wanted to move into international football and leave behind what she "loves", which is working with players day to day.

Yet the initial conversations proved appealing and she found herself in a lengthy interview process lasting some three to four months.

"I really liked that it was extensive," she says. "It meant that their hiring process was thorough. I got to interview them as much as they interviewed me."

That included speaking to the manager of the men's team, former Leeds boss Jesse Marsch, who had already made the transition from club to the international game.

And she was impressed – by the organisation's leadership led by chief executive Kevin Blue, the culture of the team, and the talent of the players, plus Canada were happy for her to continue living in California if she took the role.

"When I interviewed for this job, Kevin was very clear that I didn't have to move," she said.

"That's been really, really beneficial for us as a family. I don't think people understand when you take on a head coach role, and I understand people say you're in a privileged position, but it's the impact on your family it has.

"I had young children that just didn't understand what was going on [when she was sacked] – lots of tears, lots of heartache, that I felt like I'd contributed to that, which was difficult.

"There were jobs open in the UK at the time when I didn't have a job. There were some I would have been interested in, some I wouldn't have been interested in, but as soon as I got involved in this process it became clear I was really interested in this [and] I was only committed to one thing."

Casey Stoney took charge of Canada for the first time in February, overseeing two wins and one draw in the Pinatar Cup in Spain

She is taking over a country who are ranked sixth in the world but have experienced their own turmoil.

During last summer's Paris Olympics, in which Canada reached the quarter-finals, two members of the team's coaching staffwere sent home for flying a drone over a training sessionheld by New Zealand, their opponents in a group game.

Their head coach Bev Priestman, another Englishwoman, wasgiven a year-long ban by world governing body Fifaand Canada – who had won Olympic gold at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Games – were docked six points.

Priestman "did reach out and wish me luck" says Stoney, but they have had no other communication and the new Canada coach is keen to focus on the future, with the 2027 World Cup on the horizon.

She met the majority of her players for the first time over the last two weeks as Canada competed in a four-team tournament, the Pinatar Cup, in Spain, which they won following a 7-0 thrashing of Chinese Taipei, a 2-0 win over Mexico and a 1-1 draw with China.

"This team excites me," she says. "I do think they've got so much potential.

"What they were able to achieve last year in difficult circumstances shows what they're capable of, but there's so much more to come."

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Blood brothers – bonds and betrayal on a rugby pitch

Tom Williams, kneeling on one knee, runs his hand over the blades of grass. His eyes are desperately scanning as his heartbeat rises further.

It is deep in the second half of the 2009 Heineken Cup quarter-final at the Stoop. Williams' team – Harlequins – are a point down.

It is the biggest match the 25-year-old has ever played in.

Harlequins are aiming to make the last four for the first time. Trying to stop them are a star-studded Leinster team featuring the likes of Brian O'Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip, Rob Kearney and Felipe Contepomi.

The stakes are sky-high and time is tight.

But Williams has a more pressing concern.

"I had taken the blood capsule out of my sock, put it in my mouth, and then tried to chew down on it,"he remembers on Sport’s Strangest Crimes: Bloodgate, a BBC Radio 5 Live podcast that delves deeper than ever into one of rugby's most infamous scandals.

"But it fell out on to the floor. I'm red-green colour-blind. I can't see the thing on the floor so I am searching around for it.

"It's just the ridiculousness of it."

A few minutes later, everyone could see it.

LISTEN: Bloodgate – Sport's Strangest Crimes

Williams, having found the capsule and burst it between his teeth, was led off the pitch, with strangely scarlet blood streaming from his mouth, splattering on Quins' famous quartered shirt.

A blood injury meant Harlequins could bring their star fly-half Nick Evans, previously substituted, back on for a late drop-goal shot at glory.

Williams departed the pitch against Leinster accompanied by physio Steph Brennan, left, watched by the Sky Sports cameras

The convenience of Williams' injury raised eyebrows and suspicions.

"Who punched Tom Williams in the mouth, Tom Williams?" said former Bath and England fly-half Stuart Barnes as he commentated on Sky Sports.

Further along in the press box, Brian Moore was working for BBC Radio.

"What a load of rubbish. That is gamesmanship at best, downright cheating at worst," he said on air.

Down on the touchline, Leinster's staff were making a similar point, if in stronger language.

"As it was playing out [Harlequins director of rugby] Dean Richards was on the sidelines and I had a few words with him," says Ronan O'Donnell, the Irish side's operations manager.

"I'd probably have to bleep a few of them out. I just told him he was cheating and he knew he was cheating."

O'Donnell repeated his claim to one of the touchline officials.

"He showed me his fingers," remembers O'Donnell.

"He'd got some of the 'blood' on his fingers and it was like a Crayola marker had burst on his hands. It was that sort of texture and colour. He wasn't happy about it either."

Williams headed down the tunnel, surrounded by Harlequins staff. Members of the Leinster backroom followed in hot pursuit.

The truth went with them. But it didn't take long to emerge.

Bloodgate: The scandal that rocked rugby union

Richards was asked about Williams' apparent injury immediately after the match.

"He came off with a cut in his mouth and you have a right, if someone has a cut, to bring them off," he said.

"So your conscience is clear on that one?" persisted touchline reporter Graham Simmons.

"Yes, very much so," affirmed Richards.

The capsule was done, but the cover-up had begun.

Williams, by then, did have a cut in his mouth.

Locked in the home dressing room, while Leinster staff and match officials hammered on the door demanding entry and an explanation, he had pleaded with club doctor Wendy Chapman to use a scalpel to create a real injury in place of the fake one.

With the volume increasing outside, she reluctantly did so. A photo was taken as evidence to support Quins' conspiracy.

"We were trying to win and we thought nothing of it in terms of ethics," Williams tells Bloodgate.

"We thought we were just pushing the boundaries and doing what it took to try and get a result."

They had failed to do so on the pitch. A limping Evans had shanked a late drop-goal and Leinster hung on to win.

Soon, they needed to do so in a boardroom.

Three months after the match, Williams, Chapman, Richards and Harlequins physio Steph Brennan were sat in the plush offices of a central London law firm.

All faced misconduct charges. And a big screen.

The screen played television pictures which had never originally been broadcast.

They showed Brennan appearing to pass something to Williams as he went on the pitch to treat another player. Williams then appeared to fold the mystery object into the top of his sock.

And then finally, a few minutes later, the wing, kneeled, retrieved it and, after dropping it on the floor, placed it back in his mouth.

Together with the footage of him walking off the pitch, winking to a team-mate en route, it made a compelling case.

Dean Richards was a legendary player, winning 48 England caps and representing the British and Irish Lions, before moving into coaching

The club had its defence though.

Richards had co-ordinated their accounts.

Williams, they all claimed, had been retrieving his mouthguard from his sock. His mouth was already bleeding. Chapman had applied gauze to Williams' mouth, not a scalpel.

Richards called the charges against him and his club "ridiculous", claiming that fair play was "in-built" to his coaching.

Brennan, who had bought the capsule used by Williams from a fancy dress shop in Clapham, claimed never to have seen them outside of a Halloween party.

The panel presiding over the case were suspicious, but, with Quins' backroom staff sticking rigidly to their story, they couldn't unpick the full connivance.

"It was just so obviously a lie," says Williams. "I realised I was properly in trouble."

When the verdict came, it landed wholly on Williams. He was banned from rugby for a year. Richards, Chapman and Brennan were all cleared, with the club handed a 250,000 euro fine for failing to control their player.

WIlliams was, in the eyes of the adjudicating panel, a lone rogue agent.

Harlequins, united in both the crime and cover-up, were suddenly divided by a punishment that touched only one of their number.

Ugo Monye, right, spent the whole of his 13-year professional career at Harlequins

Williams, having supposedly brought disgrace on Harlequins by independently concocting the blood capsule plan, sought advice from the Rugby Players' Association.

They urged him to appeal, to blow the whistle on the whole plot.

But the club had other ideas. Williams was offered a new two-year deal, three years of guaranteed employment at the club once he had retired and a promise to help him build a career outside of rugby.

He just had to hold back on the real story. He had to be a team-mate once more. He had to protect the club that meant so much to them all.

The full extent of the plot, the complicity of the club's medical staff and coaches, couldn't come out.

"They said to me 'do you understand the impact of this decision you're about to make? If you come forward and show this, Harlequins will be kicked out of Europe, your friends' playing opportunities for their countries will be reduced, Steph and Wendy will be struck off, we'll lose sponsors we'll lose money'," Williams remembers.

"Playing rugby was all I wanted to do and all I felt that I could do.

"So I was stuck between coming forward and telling the truth and falling on my sword. And I didn't know what to do."

"I'd have taken the rap," Ugo Monye, Williams' team-mate at the time, tells Bloodgate. "With the deal that was supposedly being offered, 100%."

Harlequins were desperate to contain a toxic scandal. Banned and branded a cheat, Williams wanted to tell the truth, explain his actions and rescue his rugby dreams.

At one point, he asked for more money in exchange for his silence; £390,000 to pay off his mortgage and a four-year contract. Quins refused.

In a statement from the time Quins chairman Charles Jillings described Williams' demands as "exorbitant" and "shocking". He insisted that "under no circumstances was the financial proposal a reward for Tom's silence."

"I'd sunk to rock bottom," says Williams. "It was a catastrophic period from a personal standpoint."

And all the time, the clock was ticking.

Williams had one month to appeal against his ban, to go public and get his career back on track.

Two days before the window to appeal shut, an email landed in Williams inbox.

He wasn't the only one considering an appeal. The European Cup organisers too were unhappy that he was the only person found guilty. They knew there must be more to the case.

The chances of one young player coming up with such a scheme on his own and carrying it out in secret in the tight and tightly-controlled environment of a professional club were remote.

They wrote to tell Williams they were to appeal against Richards, Brennan and Chapman being cleared. They would call him as a witness, cross-examine him and, if he didn't comply, level a second misconduct charge at him.

"His face literally just went white," remembers Alex, Williams' girlfriend at the time, now wife.

A final summit meeting with the Harlequins hierarchy was called.

Tom and Alex drove to the Surrey home of one of the club's board. Drinks and snacks were laid out, but the conversation soon turned to business.

"We were going round and round in circles," remembers Tom.

"Harlequins were saying to me, if I fell on my sword, for want of a better term, they would guarantee me future employment, pay off some of my mortgage, pay for me to go on sabbatical and we'll guarantee my girlfriend's future employment.

"On the other hand, if I came forward and told the truth they said l would bury the club."

Frustrated, stressed and tired after three hours of back and forth, Alex excused herself for a cigarette break. As she stubbed it out and prepared to go back into the meeting, she saw Tom coming in the opposite direction.

He had given up. He would run away, leave the country, turn his back on rugby, start again – anything to get out of this situation.

Alex hadn't finished though. She wanted to ask one more question of the 13 men in the room.

"I remember the surprise on their faces when it was just me standing there," she says.

"I said 'I'm really sorry to bother you again, but do you mind if I just have you for a couple more minutes? I just want to ask you all individually one question'.

"I went round and I actually pointed to every single person and I just said, 'Is this Tom's fault?' And each of them gave a resounding no. Every single one of them."

"Alex humanised me again, because I had dehumanised myself, Harlequins had dehumanised me," says Tom.

"I was a pawn by that point, and I was ready to be moved in any way that anyone pushed me.

"She was the person from outside of this tight rugby centric-environment who could cut through that.

"She said what had gone on was not my fault – what had gone on was wrong – and made people realise that."

Then-Leinster coach Michael Chieka, far right in black coat, was keen to make his point to match officials as Tom Williams headed for the dressing room

Early the next morning, Tom got a phone call.

Richards had resigned. Harlequins said they would support Williams telling the truth and accept the fall-out.

The game was up. The cover-up would be uncovered. The truth would change lives.

At a hearing in Glasgow, Williams told the full story.

Richards admitted instructing physio Brennan to carry the blood capsules in his medical bag "just in case". He was judged to be the "directing mind" of the Bloodgate plot and banned from rugby for three years.

Brennan admitted buying the fake blood in advance and was described as Richards' "willing lieutenant". He was banned from the sport for two years and a dream job working with England, all lined up, was gone.

Harlequins' club doctor Chapman was referred to the General Medical Council. By cutting open Tom's mouth, she had contravened a central principle of medicine to "do no harm".

She said she was "ashamed" and "horrified" by what she had done, but she had an unlikely supporter.

Arthur Tanner – the Leinster doctor that day at the Stoop, one of those incensed by Tom's fake injury – spoke up for her.

"When it transpired that she had been forced and coerced into doing it I really felt very, very sorry for her because I realised there was going to be a difficult two or three years ahead of her," he said.

Tom, who had pleaded with Chapman to cut his mouth, also supported her, telling the hearing she is "as much a victim in all this as me".

"It's a huge regret of mine… putting her in a position where she felt she had no other option but to do it," says Tom.

Chapman was cleared to return to medicine.

Of the quartet though, Williams was the only one to stay at Harlequins.

At the first game of the following season, some opposition fans turned up dressed as vampires.

He was targeted on the pitch, with opposing players aiming taunts, and sometimes punches, at him.

There was no sanctuary in the home dressing room either.

"A number of my team-mates would have been loyal to Dean Richards and felt that I'd betrayed not only him, but also them as a club," remembers Williams.

"It definitely impacted them, there was definitely a level of distrust, probably dislike as well."

Williams became a quieter, sadder, slower presence. The zip was gone from his game, the smile was gone from his face.

It seemed he was just playing out his contract, an unwanted reminder of the past as Harlequins built an exciting new team under new boss Conor O'Shea during the 2011-12 season.

"I'd lost every morsel of confidence that I possibly could have had," remembers Williams.

"I wasn't in the team. I was just that person around training who had done something in the past."

But, after a starring cameo in a win over French giants Toulouse, something reignited in Williams' game.

The season ended with Harlequins winning their first Premiership crown in the Twickenham sun, with Williams scoring the first try in front of Alex and their young son.

"It's curious how sport works, how life works out," says Williams.

"You go from dead and buried to feeling the elation of being on top of the world."

Williams scored the opening try for Harlequins in the 2012 Premiership final

But you can also go in the opposite direction.

Williams played for Harlequins until 2015 when moved on to the coaching staff. In 2019, he left rugby to pursue a career in consultancy.

"About five years ago, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, and I suspect that it came from this event," he says.

"I've been on medication ever since, and I struggle on a day-to-day basis.

"My initial impression is always to trust, and that got me in trouble in the first place – but it's how I operate best. I try and see the best in people.

"I try and see the best in everyone involved. And I wish them the best because there's no point holding on to it.

"Ultimately, it was a game of sport, but it did mean everything to me at the time.

"I wish I had the self-awareness and perspective I have now.

Tom Williams on the legacy of ‘Bloodgate’

"I am very, very happy now. I've got three children who are healthy and happy, and I feel like I'm building a life for myself that isn't identified by a moment in time in 2009."

Escaping the taint of what spilled from the capsule and cut that day has been hard for all involved.

Dean Richards and Mark Evans both declined to be interviewed for this podcast series. Steph Brennan did not respond to our requests, while Dr Wendy Chapman could not be reached.

The life, loss and legacy of Kevin Campbell

Kevin Campbell was the all-action, hard-grafting centre-forward who delighted football fans with great goals across a 19-year career at the top of the game.

Affectionately known as Super Kev at Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Everton, he developed a reputation as one of the hardest-to-handle forwards in the country, while his beaming smile and joyous celebrations made him one of English football's most popular characters.

"I think if you ask anyone who's ever been in the presence of him, they'll always remember him and speak about how good a person he was," says Campbell's son Tyrese, 25, who plays as a striker for Sheffield United. "He carried the whole room – you knew when he was in there because you could probably hear him.

"He was a respectful, happy, positive person. You could even say almost too good for this Earth. A proper angel sent from heaven."

In 2024 Kevin Campbell's life was tragically cut short after he suffered a serious illness, and an investigation was launched into concerns over his care.

After his inquest concluded on Monday, this is the story of Campbell's life, loss and legacy, told by those who knew him best.

The Life, Loss and Legacy of Kevin Campbell

Campbell will eventually raise his own family in the north-west, but is born in south London in 1970, the second youngest of seven children in a family with Jamaican roots.

"We were brought up by a single mother so resources were extremely tight," Campbell's younger sister Lorna says. "We used to play tennis against a back wall because we couldn't afford to hire a court. Kevin wanted to be in different football teams and it was a struggle for my mother to pay all the subs.

"We had three big brothers and he was never afraid to play football with them and their friends – he would just take them on. And this was on the mean streets of Brixton. That's when he came alive."

Kevin and his sister Lorna grew up playing sport together on the streets of Brixton

Campbell begins to feel unwell. His symptoms are generic – tiredness, loss of appetite, a decrease in weight.

Despite insisting that family and friends need not worry, in the following months he has multiple stays in hospitals in Greater Manchester. His appearance changes as he becomes visibly weaker. Doctors are unsure what is causing Campbell's symptoms.

According to an eventual inquest, he is discharged in March 2024 after "responding well to treatment".

World Football: The life, loss and legacy of Kevin Campbell

'He carried a whole room' – Family & friends pay tribute to Campbell

Campbell's natural talent means he is scouted by multiple professional clubs in London, and he chooses to sign a youth deal at Arsenal.

"When I joined Arsenal at 16, he was a young kid, about nine," says Paul Davis, a midfielder with the Gunners between 1980 and 1995. "That's when I started to hear his name – people saying 'this guy is scoring plenty of goals'.

"Then he came up to train with the first team. We see this big guy – six foot one, 17, wide, his legs are so thick and chunky. And everyone's thinking, 'Wow, no wonder he's scoring goals'. He was just knocking everybody over. We had people like Kenny Sansom, Viv Anderson – senior internationals – and when they saw Kevin coming over they would be like 'oh no' because they knew he would embarrass them in training.

"When I first came through I was the only black player at Arsenal. You've got to remember the culture of the country meant it was OK to tell off-colour jokes. So if you had somebody that was in the struggle with you, then it made it easier.

"Kevin would always challenge things in a way that didn't end up with a fight. He was able to do it and they thought, 'actually, should I be saying this, or should I be doing this?'"

Campbell was scouted by teams across London, but had supported Arsenal since his early childhood, and joined the Gunners as a teenager

Andy Cole, the fourth top goalscorer in Premier League history, begins playing alongside Campbell when both are coming through the youth ranks at Arsenal. The pair combine in a successful FA Youth Cup campaign, and become friends.

"Unbelievable strength and power," Cole says of Campbell's style. "He was quick as well. And to be fair Kevin didn't have to be aggressive, because the size of him meant people feared him anyway. I think everyone enjoyed playing with him due to the fact that he worked so hard for his team."

After making his first-team debut in 1988, Campbell wins two league titles as well as the FA Cup, League Cup, and European Cup Winners' Cup in a seven-year spell with the Gunners in which his joyous goal celebrations and gregarious character make him a fan favourite.

"Kevin had a larger than life personality," Cole says. "He could walk into a room and light it up – life and soul of the party.

"I remember one night Kevin took me out, we had a good laugh. Unfortunately for me I was in the next day and Kevin had the day off. We were doing stand runs at Highbury. Man, I couldn't raise a gallop.

"I remember [Arsenal youth-team coach] Pat Rice saw Kevin and said, 'Kevin! Did you take Coley out last night?' Kevin was like 'Pfft, nah, I don't know what you're talking about, Pat.' I was just laughing… if Pat ever knew."

Campbell's condition worsens and he begins a long stay in Manchester Royal Infirmary. He has lost over half his body weight.

Friends and family become aware that his illness is more serious than first believed.

His friend Jason Lavelle says: "When I went to see him, I met his brothers beforehand and they did prep me for the fact that he had lost a lot of weight, that he wouldn't look the same as what I remember him as. And that was the case.

"In my mind's mind I was still thinking 'this is Kevin, Super Kevin, and he is seriously ill but he is still going to pull through this."

Cole explains: "I got a phone call from someone saying 'Coles, just letting you know that Kevin's not very well'.

"I knew mentally I couldn't see him like that. I just… I couldn't bring myself to see Kev in that state after knowing him being fit, strong."

Eventually, the cause of Campbell's illness is discovered. He is suffering from infective endocarditis, an infection in the inner lining of the heart or its valves which affects one in 30,000 people in the UK.

"It's often very difficult to diagnose," says Dr Debbie Harrington, consultant aortic surgeon at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital.

"Often patients will present with very non-specific symptoms that have gone on for months. They won't necessarily be seen by a specialist in cardiology who is going to think of the right diagnosis."

"When we have problems where patients sadly don't make it, often it's because they get to us too late – that is usually the reason why patients don't survive.

"Overall in the general medical community I would say there is probably a lack of awareness of infective endocarditis – we know that it is actually on the increase. Definitely awareness is a big, big factor."

After leaving Arsenal to play for Nottingham Forest in 1995, striking up a lethal striker partnership with Pierre van Hooijdonk, Campbell spends a brief spell with Trabzonspor in Turkey.

But Campbell is racially abused by the club's president after signing, and seven months later moves back to the Premier League, joining Everton. There, he becomes the club's first black captain, scores crucial goals to keep the Toffees in the top flight, and mentors a young Wayne Rooney.

"He was an inspiration, really," Rooney says. "Everton were struggling for a few years and he galvanised the whole club.

Campbell's influence on a young Rooney had a marked impact

"He helped me a lot – always talking to me throughout the game. As a young player you're still learning, figuring out how to try and play the game, how to be in the right positions.

"You see him play, you see his strengths, but actually playing with him he was a lot cleverer than I thought he was. Back then it was big man, small man up front. Obviously he was the big man and I was running off him – I did a lot of running for him!"

Campbell sets up his own record label, 2 Wikid, and after playing for West Brom and Cardiff, he retires in 2007, embarking on a career in punditry and broadcasting.

Infective endocarditis can be treated with antibiotics if diagnosed early. But the struggle for diagnosis in Campbell's case means the infection has worsened, leading to kidney issues, a stroke and eventually fatal multi-organ failure. He dies on 15 June.

"I was the one that got the call from the hospital to say that Kevin wasn't going to make it, that he was having difficulty breathing," Lorna says. "That was at five o'clock in the morning. Then it was my job to call the rest of the family and tell everybody the news. Those early days when Kevin passed were very, very difficult."

Kevin coached his sons Kyle (left) and Tyrese (right), before both went on to become footballers

Tyrese says: "Without saying it to each other, we knew it was coming. I'd say we prepared. We're our Dad's kids, so we've got his strength. We were relieved eventually when the day did come – he wasn't in pain any more and we were at peace with that. I knew he wouldn't have wanted to be that way and he could just rest."

Campbell's second son Kyle plays as a striker for Bootle FC.

"It's hard on the mind as well when you see someone so fit, so powerful, so loving, and you're looking at him like 'that's not him'," he says. "We never really lied to each other, never said 'he's going to come back perfect', because sometimes in life, it doesn't go your way."

News of Campbell's death is made public, shocking fans and former team-mates.

Rooney says: "It was a massive loss for everyone in football, but for me personally obviously playing with him and knowing him as a person, I was devastated."

Campbell's popularity among team-mates was strong at every club he played for

Manchester NHS Foundation Trust announces an investigation into the quality of care Campbell received in the run-up to his death. It is classed as a Level 5 patient safety incident. At the same time, an inquest is opened at Manchester Coroner's Court.

"When someone passes away you just want to be able to grieve knowing that it's happened, that it's disappointing it's happened, but it ends there," Cole says. "When you start hearing that there could possibly be this, possibly that, that just hurts even more."

For Campbell's sons, the investigation is rendered unimportant by the scale of their loss.

"It can do whatever, but it's not going to bring him back, so I don't see the point in me investing my effort and energy," Tyrese says. "For me, it wasn't really going to change anything, so there's not much point."

The class is later reduced to a Level 2 patient safety incident, and the investigation determines that Campbell's death was "possibly avoidable but not very likely".

The inquest, overseen by the coroner and including evidence given by two doctors involved in Campbell's care,finds that he died of natural causesand adds that "missed opportunities" to correctly diagnose Campbell did "not more than minimally contribute to his death on the balance of probabilities".

The scrutiny over Campbell's death and the handling of his illness comes against a backdrop of wider concern about standards of care in the NHS.

"I think because of the significant financial trouble the NHS is in we have seen a marked decline in the quality of patient care," says Dr Luke Munford, senior lecturer in health economics at the University of Manchester.

"The NHS recommends that 90% of cardiac patients are seen within an 18-week timeframe. In Manchester at the moment that is 54%."

"Manchester receives about £2.6bn per year, which sounds like a lot, but when you divide that through by the population it serves it actually isn't a great deal of money at all.

"England does suffer from a postcode lottery. People in the north, even if they have substantial personal wealth, are at the mercy of the local health and care system.

"If we look at budget cuts, austerity hit areas like Manchester much worse than areas in the south-east of England." Dr Munford adds that he is concerned there would be more examples of cases where complex illnesses go undiagnosed.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson tells the BBC: "Kevin Campbell was a huge inspiration, and our deepest sympathies are with his family and friends.

"This government is overhauling our NHS so it works for all patients, no matter where they live and our fundamental shift from sickness to prevention will be vital in tackling health inequalities, making people healthier and reducing pressure on the NHS.

"Under our Plan for Change, we are also prioritising patient safety and investing an extra £26 billion in the NHS to cut waiting lists and save lives."

A spokesperson for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust says: "We once again offer our deep condolences to the family and friends of Mr Campbell for their very great loss. It is clear from the inquest that everyone did their best to care for him, and there is no evidence that Mr Campbell's death could have been avoided.

"We are committed to constantly improving the quality of care we provide to our patients. Whilst there are aspects of Mr Campbell's care that could have been improved, the Coroner has found that these did not more than minimally contribute to his sad death. We have already taken learning from Mr Campbell's care and made improvements across the Trust, and we are committed to ongoing learning and improvement for all our patients."

Campbell undertook regular charitable work during his life, and following his death his family sets up a foundation in his name which aims to improve the lives of young people by supporting them with funding, projects and activities.

"The Kevin Campbell Foundation is an extension of Kevin," Lorna says. "It allows us to celebrate Kevin as the footballer, and the amazing achievements he managed over 20 years as a footballer, but it also allows us to discover Kevin the man."

Cole and Davis are among the Foundation's ambassadors.

"For someone who put themselves out for me so much when I was younger, it's the least of things I could have done," Cole says. "He was a selfless individual, always prepared to try and help.

Everton and Arsenal fans paid tribute to Campbell during the Premier League game between the clubs at Goodison Park on 5 April

The wisdom Campbell imparted on his sons will continue to have an impact on their careers.

"He always told us how proud he was of us and how well we're doing," says Tyrese. "When he was ill it was 'just keep going, keep doing what we're doing, and keep being you'."

"I've had players coming up to me saying 'sorry to hear about your dad', 'you're doing really well' and stuff. It's nice because he was so loved and so respected."

For Cole, the loss of Campbell has hit hard, but the memories they shared together are a great comfort.

"As we say, we're not here for a long time, we're here for a good time," Cole beams. "And I can sit here and say – Kevin had a good time. He definitely had a good time."

How rejection fuelled Mourinho's second Champions League triumph

"To find beauty in ugliness is the province of the poet. The most beautiful defeat of my career."

Acclaimed English novelist Thomas Hardy and former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho.

At first glance, not obvious kindred spirits.

But Hardy's thoughts – and Mourinho's hard-line pragmatism – actually make the origin of the above lines ambiguous: a post-match quote or a poet's postscript?

Understanding the origins and making of Mourinho is a key tenet of a new BBC Sport documentary – How to Win the Champions League: Jose Mourinho.

A huge chunk of that insight can be boiled down to a life-altering change in direction in the summer of 2008.

A sliding doors moment in the corridors of the Camp Nou that profoundly changed Mourinho.

A moment of rejection and a resulting shift to realpolitik that the famed Victorian realist Hardy would have been proud of.

How to Win the Champions League

"That's the moment where Mourinho becomes the Dark Lord," Guardian journalist Jonathan Wilson explains.

The moment to take tiki-taka to task: "If they're going to play to entertain, I will make sure nobody has any fun ever again."

The rejection in question came in the summer of 2008. Barcelona were looking for a new manager, having sacked 2006 Champions League winner Frank Rijkaard.

The choice was between Mourinho and one-time mate Pep Guardiola.

The pair had collaborated closely in the second half of the 1990s when Mourinho was working as Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal's assistant, and Guardiola was the Barca captain.

The decision was not necessarily taken on merit – given that Mourinho had a Champions League and Premier League title on his CV, while Guardiola had only just finished his first year in management with Barca's reserves.

It was a decision that was extremely unpopular with Mourinho and went on to fuel his methods – and fuel, most notably, a desire to put victory above all else.

Jose Mourinho v Pep Guardiola: How Jose became 'The Dark Lord'

The zenith of Mourinho's pragmatism, and arguably his entire managerial career, came at the Nou Camp on the way to the second of his Champions League wins, in 2010. Mourinho's Inter arrived at the home of Guardiola's reigning European champions with a 3-1 lead from the semi-final first leg.

The Barca faithful believed. "The atmosphere before the match was intense," Zanetti remembers. "When we went on to the pitch at the start there was an enormous banner with 'comeback' written in Catalan."

A 28th-minute red card for Inter's Thiago Motta strengthened that belief. But it also ushered in a 60-minute display of defiance that Mourinho believes defined himself and his entire career.

"If I could choose one of my team's most emotional performances in my career of more than 20 years, I have to choose that one," Mourinho says of that Nou Camp night.

"We go to Barcelona and we know what was waiting for us in terms of atmosphere and the amazing quality of that team.

"To play with 10 players in Barcelona becomes epic. You need heroes. You need to have the best out of everybody.

"I think I was brilliant in the way I organised the team.

"We defended with everything we had – with hearts, with souls.

"This is the most beautiful defeat of my career.

"We gave absolutely everything. We lost 1-0. But we got to the final."

How do you impress Jose Mourinho?

Having got to the final, Inter went on to win it with Mourinho once again coming out on top in a friend-turned-foe showdown – this time against a Bayern Munich side managed by his former Barca boss Van Gaal.

For the Portuguese it was a second Champions League triumph – and, for the second time, an against-the-odds win, in which Mourinho's man-management skills were front and centre.

Porto's triumph in 2004 was also an underdog tale (the only side since the turn of the century from outside Europe's big five leagues to win the Champions League) and also a story where Mourinho's man-management came to the fore.

Benni McCarthy scored four goals to help them to the final and says of Mourinho: "He was passionate, caring and a master tactician. I had never seen that.

"He was the first manager I encountered who knew almost everything about every single player – the backgrounds, where they come from. How many family members do you have? Are your mum and dad still alive?

"He wanted to know about my upbringing, my struggles, the highs and lows. I just thought that was an unbelievable touch.

"I didn't even know people in football did that until Jose. I played for a few managers prior to that. None of them knew me. With Jose, it was the complete opposite.

"I was like: 'wow, what a manager to play for'.

"And you would run through a brick wall for him."

Mourinho agrees. "The lesson went with me all over my career. When I go to European competition, I always feel that I can win.

"If you build a strong team, a team with great tactical culture, with a great resilience, with mental stability to cope with the difficult moments, especially in the knockout games. You always have a chance.

"Champions League winners are always teams. They will have players that, in a certain moment, make the difference. But only teams do it, and very complete teams."

Listen to the full Jose Mourinho interview on a Football Daily Special

Mourinho's man-management style hasn't always worked of course – his spells at Manchester United and Tottenham featured high-profile spats with high-profile players, such as Paul Pogba and Dele Alli.

But, as former Inter Milan skipper Zanetti attests, during the 2010 Champions League campaign, Mourinho was the master man-manager and creator of a team culture.

Six years after Porto the technique used to forge a team had a South American flavour, but the outcome was the same.

"Mourinho created a family," Zanetti said. "We created this group during the week, when we had our asados [Argentine barbeques], which Mourinho liked too.

"It was a moment for unity – a family moment.

"I once said I would throw myself into a fire for Jose Mourinho. Our relationship was not merely manager to player or manager to captain, it was much more. It was a very strong human bond, and it always will be.

"Those two years were very significant for me and for him… and will remain in our hearts forever. He taught us so much and he made us believe that we could make history, and we did."

Zanetti's "remain in our hearts" sentimentality is not something you'd naturally associate with Mourinho's ruthless pragmatism.

How Jose Mourinho got the best out of Inter Milan striker Sameul Eto'o

After both of his Champions League triumphs the Portuguese manager was in a new job within weeks, first time round moving to Chelsea and, in 2010, leaving for Real Madrid.

Once more, it was a realpolitik that punctuates the Portuguese's career – and would sit well with the realism of Hardy. Getting the job done, and then moving on to pastures new, when you are at the peak of your powers – both managerial and financial.

But inHow to Win the Champions League: Jose Mourinho,behind-the-scenes archive footage from the Bernabeu – in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 Champions League final – shows a different side of Mourinho.

The footage shows the Portuguese manager being driven out of the stadium, past a team bus he'd rushed off minutes earlier with barely a word. He's leaving immediately, with a move to Real Madrid in the offing.

However, when he spots one of his key generals, Marco Materazzi, he's unable to make such a cold exit. Mourinho gets out of the car and the pair share a tender, tearful embrace before Mourinho goes back to the vehicle and ultimately turns his back on Inter.

His next public sighting was when he was announced as Madrid manager nine days later.

On the face of it the speed of this turnaround suggests Inter was a mercenary means to an end rather than a seminal moment.

The tears, and Mourinho's account 15 years later, tell a different, more sentimental tale.

How to win the Champions League: Jose Mourinho

"I ran away – I went to the bus to say goodbye, and I didn't even shake one hand," Mourinho says.

"I wanted to escape. I think if I get on to the bus, if I go back with them to Milan, if I walk into a full San Siro, if I walk into the Duomo [Milan Cathedral] full of people, I think I wouldn't go to Real Madrid.

"I think the emotion would stop me to go.

"But I wanted to go. I thought it was the right moment. I had to escape.

"Marco was there. If instead of Marco it was Dejan Stankovic, or Diego Milito or Julio Cesar, it would have been the same story."

In many ways the duality of that moment defines Mourinho, and the question of how he won his two Champions League titles.

Creating a fiercely loyal relationship with his players off the pitch which ensured the side that stepped on the field would be comfortable both running through walls, and with their backs to the wall.

Fifteen years later Mourinho may have mellowed slightly. His man-management skills and star quality may have waned too.

But the ego, confidence and pride in his career-defining Champions League victories remains as strong as ever.

As Mourinho pointedly remarks, both his Porto and Inter triumphs have not been repeated.

"Why am I now here speaking with you?," he says.

"It is not because I am now at Fenerbahce, or because I won the Premier League with Chelsea.

"It is because I am a double Champions League winner. That is the reason.

"I think there are other teams and clubs that when you do it, other guys [managers] then do it.

"I do this season. You do next season. Three years later, another will come and then people will be even confused in which season you won it.

"You go to Real Madrid, to Barcelona, to Manchester United, to these big teams and maybe people don't have the same feeling.

"But you go to Porto and you go to you go to Milan and everybody knows.

"2004 Champions League winner, 2010 Champions League winner.

Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast

The runner who went viral and sparked a campaign for change for women

Sophie Power had not even laced up her trainers for her first run when she signed up to an ultramarathon.

But what was initially a fresh challenge after being made redundant has manifested into a life-changing passion that has led to positive change for women in sport.

In 2018, a photograph of Power breastfeeding her then three-month-old son during a 106-mile race went viral.

There had been no option for her to defer her place until she was fit to compete and it highlighted what she saw as a major issue facing women and mothers.

Now, many of the world's biggest events, including the London Marathon, have implemented pregnancy deferral policies and Power's work has been central to that change.

Power signed up for her first 250km (155-mile) ultramarathon at the age of 26, shortly after having been made redundant from her job in banking.

Although she was not a runner and never had been, a friend had recently completed the challenge himself and recommended she try it, as he believed she could have the stamina needed due to her time in the air squadron at university.

"I went for my first run the next day and realised pretty quickly that I loved ultra-running. I love being outside, the breadth of phenomenal people you meet [who] you wouldn't come across in everyday life," the 42-year-old, who lives near Guildford in Surrey, told BBC Sport.

"And really kind of pushing my body to the limits in a new way."

Immediately hooked, Power devoted her time to training and travelling to compete in stage races around world.

Shortly after the birth of her second child, Cormac, she was faced with a dilemma.

Power juggles her campaigning and ultrarunning alongside bringing up her three children

Having given up her entry to the iconic Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc (UTMB) race while she recovered from the birth of her first child, Donnacha, three years before, she was not prepared to do so again.

Like many races, UTMB had no pregnancy deferral policy at the time.

Despite not being able to run so soon postpartum, Power entered the 106-mile event with a view to starting and maybe walking the first 10km.

Yet 43.5 hours after setting off she completed the challenge, that included 10,000m of climbing, inside the cut-off time, walking the whole way except for a short stretch after one of the highest points when she was worried she might get hypothermia. She crossed the line with then three-year-old Donnacha.

That moment is one she looks back on with immense pride, though it was a photograph of her taken with her younger son that day that would inspire what followed.

French photographer Alexis Berg was at UTMB photographing the 2018 race, as he is at many ultra events. And it was at one of the refuelling stations that he saw something he had never previously seen at one of these events.

"I knew it was unusual. At that moment it was impossible to realise the photo would have such an impact, but I just pushed one button that day and everything else that has happened is because of Sophie," he said.

What he captured was Power sitting down and breastfeeding her baby son during a break from the race.

"That photo has undoubtedly changed the course of my life. I worked out I should never have been on that start line," she said.

"I should have been given the opportunity to complete that kind of dream race when I was fit and healthy, not three months postpartum, trying to go 106 miles around a huge mountain by breastfeeding my baby. It was crazy."

Alexis Berg's photograph of Power breast-feeding her three-month-old son, Cormac, at UTMB went viral in 2018

Power wanted to ensure returning mums did not face the same choice and put their bodies through the same risk as she had done.

She founded the charity SheRaces with the core aim of breaking down barriers preventing women from entering events alongside men and safeguarding returning mothers.

After the photo went viral, many male directors contacted her almost immediately to say they had added pregnancy deferrals to their programmes and expressed embarrassment that it was something they had not thought of before.

She engaged with more than 2,000 women to find out what prevented them from getting on the start line of races alongside men.

Her research went far beyond elite level sport. Power is not a professional athlete herself and her real passion is for other women and girls who had been like her.

"Girls drop out of sport at such a high rate. There's a massive dream deficit for girls compared to boys," she said.

Power believes a big reason for this is the language used when promoting sports and sporting events.

"It's 'hardest, toughest, baddest', and for a lot of women that's quite off-putting," she said.

"How do we redesign sport in a female lens? Can we make sure that the opportunities for girls are tailored to them, and what they want and sports provided in the right places in the right way?"

The result of her research was a set of nine principles that organisers could commit to in order to make their events more inclusive for women.

These included adapting the use of language and imagery on websites to reflect and appeal to female runners, changing cut-off times, providing female toilets, period products, changing facilities and event T-shirts made specifically for female entrants, rather than unisex ones for all, and a safeguarding and harassment policy.

Criteria for elite races includes equal exposure for the female race on social media coverage and prizes for female competition.

Power has seen change in some of the world's biggest races.

UTMB's policy,externalsince 2023 for some of its marquee events entitles those who are pregnant, have a pregnant partner or are adopting or birthing via surrogacy to a full refund and priority re-entry for up to five years.

But she says there is still a long way to go.

Assefa sets women's record as Sawe wins men's race

London Marathon breaks world record for most finishers

'Finish lines not finish times' at London Marathon

The London Marathon had a world record number of finishers in 2025, surpassing the previous record of 55,646 set by the New York Marathon in November

The New York, Boston and London marathons now all have pregnancy deferrals in place, yet mothers must pay the entrance fee for a second time when they use the deferral scheme, she said.

Her organisation's criteria requests races to implement a two-year deferral to allow people enough time to recover fully from their pregnancies.

"The majority of races are commercial, it's a business. If they can get more people on their start lines then they're going to do it and the purpose of the guidelines is they're almost non-cost. It's a no-brainer," she said.

"There are a lot of brands out there who say they are pro-women, yet they're sponsoring women's races that don't have pregnancy deferrals, that don't treat women equally.

"And then there are dinosaurs, they don't value the voice of female athletes.

"Then there are races that still need to make improvements, I put London Marathon in that bracket. They have listened to us, they are phenomenally inclusive, they've got loads of initiatives that they put out for diversity on their start lines, but they still want to make women pay twice for their place when they have a baby.

"I've definitely lost faith in some race organisers because of it but so many are changing and becoming better. You always feel like you fail at the battles you don't win but we're winning so many battles and driving so much change."

TheLondon Marathon's policy,externalallows entrants to defer for up to three years after giving birth. The event's organisers did not respond when asked why users of the deferral system must pay their entrance fee again.

What is Couch to 5k and how do I start?

Power suffered from hallucinations while on a world record-breaking ultramarathon across Ireland

As the scale of her work and its influence has grown, Power's propensity for testing her physical limits has grown with it.

She is now the holder of two Guinness world records – becoming the fastest woman to run the length of Ireland, last year.

Power completed the gruelling 340-mile route in three days 12 hours and eight minutes, smashing the previous record set by Mimi Anderson by more than three hours.

The route took her through Munster, where husband John was born, and to County Cork, where many of the Power family live, running through torrential rainfall, experiencing the early stages of sun stroke and sleeping for little more than two hours, while sustaining herself on a diet of jam-filled tortilla wraps, gels, chews and ice cream.

Her tongue was burned after two days of eating nothing but fruit and sweets. She pushed herself to the brink of total exhaustion.

"I was seeing nativity and Christmas scenes everywhere in this town. And all the trees had turned into plastic. The hallucinations were phenomenal, crazy," she said.

She has since gone on to set a second world record for thelongest distance covered on a treadmill by a female in 48 hoursand will be hosting her own women-only ultra races in the Peak District in August.

So how will she know when she has achieved what she set out to do?

"My ultimate goal for SheRaces is that we don't exist because it's not needed anymore and every woman is able to get on the start line," she added.

"Part of the reason I created it was to have something that wasn't just me and was owned by all women. We can all help each other and demand fairness."

Power completed the 84-hour Ireland challenge with just short 20-minute naps on the roadside

Hampton's rise to England goalkeeper

Born with a serious eye condition, England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton was told by doctors she should not play football.

The 24-year-old has had multiple operations to try and correct her vision but it is not perfect and she still has depth perception issues.

It is remarkable she has defied the odds and is now heading to Euro 2025 as England's number one.

"I've always gone through life trying to prove people wrong," Hampton said.

"I was told from a young age that I couldn't play football, that it wouldn't be a profession I could pursue. But here I am."

Hampton has been used to setbacks and her career has been far from smooth.

She was dropped by England months after being part of the winning Euro 2022 squad.

She was forced to prove herself again and has bounced back and risen to the top. This is the story of her journey.

When Carla Ward arrived at Birmingham City as their new manager in 2020 she had already heard about teenager Hampton.

"We spoke on the first day. I wanted to know where she wanted to be," Ward told BBC Sport.

"She was an endearing character, as well as being a livewire, like most goalkeepers. But she articulated things in a way that was far more mature than her age.

"It was on day two that I really saw what everyone was talking about. She was one of the most talented individuals I've ever worked with.

"Everyone has different talents but she was born to be a footballer."

Hampton broke into the first team at the age of 16 after switching positions from a striker to a goalkeeper, and was well known in England's youth team set-ups.

Her international manager at the time, Rehanne Skinner, had seen her talent up close.

"She played with both feet. There are very few people in the game who can play off their weaker foot and hit it 60 yards with pinpoint accuracy," said Skinner.

During an England Under-19s game against Sweden, Skinner instructed Hampton to do one thing – hit it long.

"Hannah got an assist within the first 10 minutes of the game. We won 4-0. Not a lot of goalkeepers have those tools," said Skinner.

"As time has gone on, with maturity, being in the right settings and doing a lot of work behind the scenes, she has grown and put her attention into using those strengths to the best of her ability."

Ask anyone about Hampton and they all say the same thing – that she is technically gifted and excellent with the ball at her feet.

Former Birmingham and England team-mate Ellen White said Hampton would get involved in'rondos',externalin training and playing outfield "wasn't alien" to her.

But when Hampton revealed theextent of her eye condition- called strabismus – in the media, White admitted it was "probably a shock to a lot of people".

"She probably has to adapt a bit to combat it, but you wouldn't ever know if you saw her training. She is crazy and would throw herself at anything," added White.

"Her passing range is second to none, the way she moves and dives, and controls the ball. She's up there as one of the most exciting young goalkeepers in world football.

"Maybe she helped influence other people who thought they couldn't be a goalkeeper."

Carla Ward (right) managed Hannah Hampton at Birmingham City and Aston Villa

Like all young players thrust into the limelight, White admitted Hampton was a "little immature" when they first played together at Birmingham.

"Her emotions would take hold of her a lot, which they would do for any 16-year-old, and it was about dealing with the ups and downs.

"You won't save a goal every time. Managing her emotions needed time, experience and understanding.

"I tried to take her under my wing a little bit and give her that guidance. I felt at that time she would be a very good goalkeeper but she needed some help."

Hampton rose through England's ranks, making her senior debut against future world champions Spain in 2022.

She made the squad for Euro 2022 but months after celebrating victory – often seen dancing with White during laps of honour – her career hit a stumbling block.

Reports suggested she was dropped from the England squad because of her behaviour and she had to wait until March 2023 for a recall, when manager Sarina Wiegman said Hampton had "sorted out personal issues".

Speaking about that time, Hampton said the stories were "hurtful" and sherevealed on the Fozcast podcast,externalrecently that she had considered quitting football.

"I was a very young girl when all the stories came out and you're not really prepared for that. You don't expect it," she told reporters on Tuesday.

"There have been moments when everyone [in the squad] has probably thought they were in a tough position, but you get each other out of it.

"You can't let all the media scrutiny win. If you do that it just adds fuel to the fire and I wasn't willing to accept that.

"I wanted to show who I am as a person and show that wasn't always true. I thought 'just dig in'. I think I can say that I've proven people wrong."

Ward managed Hampton at Aston Villa at the time, having brought her with her from Birmingham.

She fielded questions about Hampton's situation in news conferences and left the goalkeeper out of the squad against Chelsea for the "best interests" of the team.

"We had an aligned agreement between Sarina, myself and Hannah on how we would help her with it," said Ward, reflecting on the time.

"It was a difficult time for Hannah but it was probably a moment that really helped her. It was the moment she realised she had good support around her.

"She was a young kid that just really needed support."

White, who captained England for Hampton's debut, retired from international football just before she was dropped from the squad.

But White believed Hampton "just needed time" to mature and felt she did that under former Chelsea manager Emma Hayes when she joined them in 2023.

Having "an arm around her shoulders" helped, said White, as well as the drive to become Chelsea's number one and get another shot on the international stage.

"It's obviously not ideal not being selected for England. A lot of things transpired. Fair play to her because she did just get her head down and work hard," said White.

"She just had to rebuild some of those relationships and gain them back in the England squad. I feel like she let her football do the talking.

"Everyone goes through ups and downs, rollercoaster emotions and going in and out of the squads. I am really proud of her. I'm excited to see her at the Euros."

Hannah Hampton was confirmed as England's number one in May

Ward and Hampton remain in close contact. The goalkeeper phones during Ward's interview with BBC Sport, asking what name her daughter wants on the back of a new England shirt in time for Euro 2025.

"It doesn't surprise me how well she has done. I always knew she would be England's number one and I think she's one of the best I have ever seen," said Ward after confirming her daughter wants 'Hampton' printed on the back of her shirt.

Hampton's confidence appears to have grown immensely this year after playing a key role in helping Chelsea claim an unbeaten domestic Treble.

Reflecting on her journey, she said: "It has been a bit of a whirlwind. Did I think, when I was a young girl, I'd be sitting here right now in the position I am? Absolutely not.

"But I am proud and I am looking forward to the challenges ahead. I think it's going to be a summer of very exciting football."

Hampton hopes to "fill the gloves" of previous England goalkeepers, including Mary Earps, who announced her shock retirement last month.

Earps is a two-time Fifa Best Goalkeeper award winner and played significant roles in England's victory at Euro 2022 and en route to the 2023 World Cup final.

White admits she "feels sad" that Hampton will not be able to tap into Earps' experience during the tournament and there is now even more scrutiny on the goalkeeping spot.

"It would have just been nice to have someone to be there for her and pass on that experience," said White.

"She just needs to have a good first game – that is what I want for her. It won't be easy against France because their frontline is outrageous.

"She needs to do the simple things and not do anything different. If she makes a slight mistake, I hope that doesn't affect her and she can move forward.

"Everyone is human; everyone makes mistakes and that's fine. It's just the scrutiny will be so much more now."

But Hampton appears at ease. She said she is enjoying training with uncapped goalkeepers Khiara Keating and Anna Moorhouse – and she is ready.

"We're just there to get around one another," she added. "We know whoever's on the pitch is going to be putting in 100% and doing a very good job for England."

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Bradley Rea (right) lost on points to Tyler Denny in 2022, but has since won six consecutive fights

Not many boxers know the harsh reality of what a defeat can do to your career more than Bradley Rea.

In November 2022, the Lancashire fighter suffered his first professional loss in a close decision against Tyler Denny for the English middleweight title.

While Denny went on to collect European honours and face Hamzah Sheeraz at Wembley Stadium, Rea has not competed on a televised card in two and a half years.

That is set to change on 28 June when 27-year-old Rea headlines in Hull as he faces Shakan Pitters for the vacant European light-heavyweight title, which will be live on DAZN.

It has taken 31 months to get away from the small-hall events and back in front of a broadcast audience, and Rea did not think he would have to wait this long for another shot.

Rea, however, says he does not regret taking the risk that ultimately led to him slipping out of mainstream boxing.

"Not for one second did I consider not taking the Denny fight," he tells BBC Sport.

"Since I turned pro, I'm in the game to test myself against the best possible opponents in the biggest possible fights.

"I knew it was a dangerous fight, and I knew it was a fight that if I wasn't on my A-game it would go the other way.

"I didn't turn up for one night, but people have bad days all the time. Losing your keys, stepping in a puddle, that's a bad day for the average person.

"For me, it's getting my head punched in. I seem to have been judged based off that one night."

The Denny fight was Rea's 15th in the professional game, having won the previous 14 – five of those by stoppage.

It was Rea's first opportunity for a belt at 24 years old; he was promised a comeback fight, but feels he was then pushed aside by promoters.

"Six months became a year, which quickly became two and a half years. I had to take fights on smaller circuits to stay busy so I wasn't inactive," Rea says.

"If I was a promoter, I'm the type of fighter I'd want on my shows. I have a fight of the year against Jez Smith, I feel like I deliver.

"It was hard at the time – I couldn't quite understand why.

"People always asked when I was next in a big fight, but I had to tell them it's out of my control."

Rea says his story is the perfect example of why some fighters are not prepared to face riskier opponents.

"If there was a lot more people in the sport with my mentality then it would be a better place," he says.

"Boxing's a business before anything – at the end of the day people have to be making money. When you see it first hand, you understand why some people don't take risks."

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Rea's run of bad luck has also stretched into 2025.

A scheduled bout on the undercard of Artur Beterbiev v Dmitry Bivol 2 in February was scrapped in fight week.

In April, he stepped in on three days' notice to fight Daniel Blenda Dos Santos only for the European light-heavyweight champion to pull out on the day.

Dos Santos was stripped of his 175lb belt and Rea was ordered to fight Pitters instead for the title.

Despite all this drama, Rea says he is "where I'm supposed to be".

"The last year although career-wise has been difficult, I'm probably the happiest I've been in general life," he adds.

"It's been a long, bumpy road but I feel like I'm going to get there in the end."

Rea says if he can win the "prestigious" European title, it can be his "bargaining chip" to return to big fights.

"It's more about being back on that big stage and proving myself to the people who have written me off and forgotten about me," Rea said.

"I want to prove people wrong and show what I can do, that's what it's about. Once we have this title, people will want to fight me."

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The relaunched Gallagher Prem will appear next season

The Premiership may be losing seven letters next season, but Rob Calder hopes it will gain much more.

Calder, the top flight's chief growth officer, is the man snipping the competition's nameto simply 'the Prem' for next season.

The change comes with a new logo – a shock of orange to reflect the intensity of the action – and fresh branding promoting the physicality, athleticism, collisions and confrontations on the pitch.

"There was definitely an issue with the Premiership brand in that it felt quite corporate and establishment," says Calder.

"It didn't feel like an entertainment product and that's what we're trying to address now with this new identity.

"This league is not broken, it is actually flourishing – we just need to reframe ourselves a little bit to make sure we can reach those wide audiences and grow."

In repositioning rugby, Calder hasn't looked outside the box, but into the octagon.

"If you look at sports that are growing in this country, it's basketball, it's NFL, it's mixed martial arts and there's a singularity to a lot of those brands," he adds.

"Think about UFC. There's a real sort of punchiness. There's a dynamism and a lean forward and we really like that. We thought we could do it our own way though."

The reaction when the new branding was unveiled before Saturday's final was mixed. It often is with these things.

But that is perhaps the point – the existing audience is not the target. Calder wants to expand the league's appeal and convert the indifferent.

Calder was the commercial director of cricket's Hundred before he moved to Premiership Rugby in October 2022

A record 1.26m television audience for Bath's victory, combined with demand outstripping supply for the 82,000 tickets, suggests the Premiership is nurturing new fans.

There has been big growth in engaging supporters between the ages of 18-34, while Red Bull's reported interest in buying Newcastle Falcons would tie in perfectly with a parallel aim of attracting youth-orientated brands.

It is a brief Calder has worked to before.

Before he arrived in rugby, he was the commercial director for the Hundred, the neon-spattered, slog-heavy cricket format that launched in 2021 and raised more than £500m with the sale of its franchise sides earlier this year.

That was revolution. In rugby, Calder is aiming for evolution.

"With the Hundred, we were clear that a distinctly new approach was going to be critical to get to the next generation," he says.

"When I did research on the Hundred though I looked at rugby clubs and how they compared in terms of appeal to younger audiences and they actually performed pretty well.

"There are some strong brands in there – be it Harlequins or Leicester Tigers or others – with legacy and awareness of those identities.

"So I think we're starting from a different level with rugby."

The rebrand will include more behind-the-scenes content from the league's bright, young things and more intelligent highlights, with dramatic moments, such as shuddering hits, try-saving tackles and interactions between players, included alongside the scores.

Some of the strategy is more mundane than the marketing, but just as important.

"The first time people come to rugby grounds, we have got to make them welcome," says Calder.

"We've got to point out where everything is and the rest of it.

"Rugby is probably a little bit behind where some sports are, but that's a massive focus for us.

"We've invested in gathering match day experience scores from fans and match day experience training with the clubs."

Building a family-friendly experience at grounds is a key part of the Premiership's growth strategy

Calder says the hunt for new fans is a necessity, rather than a luxury. He began his career promoting drinks for a big-brand brewers.

"There was a massive, massive commitment to consumer understanding in that industry," he says.

"What struck me when I came into sport was there was a lot of data on who was buying, but not a lot of understanding of those people outside and why they weren't engaging with the sport.

"I think that's a flaw in sport because there's there's so much pressure commercially on clubs, the focus is on understanding as much as possible your existing audience and getting as much of a return out of it.

"It's less common to look beyond that and so you have these unfortunate sort of ever-decreasing circles."

He says The Hundred only came into being because Twenty20 cricket had been mistakenly marketed at existing supporters, drawing them away from county cricket, rather than bringing in families and new fans as intended.

It isn't just other sports or other entertainment option that rugby must compete with either. It also has to keep pace with society.

"I think families are important whichever sport you're in – because more and more families make decisions to have experiences together of a weekend," says Calder.

"Maybe my dad, 30-40 years ago, would go and play golf all day or go to rugby with his mates, but I've got a commitment to look after my family and I enjoy being with my family.

"I want to make sure my two young girls can come to these events, and want to come to these events.

"We have seen it in women's football – the growth of that family experience economy. That's definitely something rugby should be tapping into."

Whether the shorter, rawer Prem hits that sweet spot will be seen next season.

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