‘I was in chronic pain all the time': Retiring Scotland captain Rachel Corsie on injury hell

Yahoo

26-05-2025

In the last eight months there were days when Rachel Corsie wondered whether she would be able to run again without extreme pain.
After knee surgery in October, she was initially expected to miss eight weeks of Aston Villa's season but a combination of hip and calf problems meant she did not make her return until earlier this month.
Corsie was adamant she would make her comeback and after achieving that goal, she has now taken the decision to retire from professional football.
The 36-year-old defender will hang up her boots after Scotland's two Nations League games against Austria and Netherlands. Corsie, who has captained her country since 2017, opened up on how the challenges of her latest rehab influenced her decision to retire.
'It's been extremely tough,' Corsie said. 'I've had six surgeries in total, five on my left knee. I remember doing my ACL back in 2012, and you're obviously much younger then, you follow the steps, you get there. I was lucky, I had an experience where everything pretty much went to plan.'I think this time around, I was sort of told by the surgeon before having the surgery that there was the option to have surgery, but the condition of my knee was fairly concerning, and that surgery would potentially give some relief, but there's quite a serious likelihood that the damage that's been done over the course of my career is going to be impactful to the rest of my life, and that's happened over time.
'I wanted to do the surgery because I knew that I couldn't get back playing leaving it as it was. You have this self-belief that you think: I've done it before I could do it again. I basically was just in chronic pain all the time, walking up and down stairs to the house. Sitting in the car for periods of time, going to the toilet, getting in and out of the shower and having to climb out the bath.
'Like all these little things, they're the day-to-day things that for me are now normal. And you kind of tolerate that. And when you tolerate it in sport, when you go and do your training, you're willing to accept some level of pain and discomfort, but I think it's the rest of your day where it probably mentally impacts you more because there's no respite for it.'
Corsie won over 150 caps for Scotland and picked out qualifying for and playing at the 2019 World Cup as the biggest moments of her career.
'One of my favourite moments – the one which was the most euphoric and brought the biggest joy – was when we qualified for the World Cup in Albania. I have a very vivid visual still in my head to just the moment the referee blew for full time. Those feelings are just unmatched.
'It's just been such an incredible experience to include two major tournaments. Of course we would've loved that to be a couple more. But I think that also makes the two we did make extra special, because it's extremely hard for nations like Scotland and around that ranking bracket who are trying to develop, trying to keep up with the top nations, it's so difficult to qualify. And to have managed to do it, I think that's extremely special as well.
'It is without doubt the best thing I've ever done in my life, playing and getting to represent your country.
'I think I will be in a total mess by the point the final whistle blows [on her last game].
'It is so hard to stop and there's a new manager coming in. There's sort of that feeling that I want to impress someone else, maybe I could do this a little longer. But you know when you've given your all to something. You know where it's at, you know the players that are coming through, you know the work that's being done. And I think I get to stay involved in the fact that I will always have earned the caps I've earned.'