Aberdeen's Scotland Women skipper Rachel Corsie to retire from football after international double-header over 'chronic' pain

Press and Journal

26-05-2025

Aberdeen's Scotland women's captain Rachel Corsie has announced she will retire from professional football after the current international camp.
Corsie, 35, who led the Dark Blues during their only World Cup campaign, in 2019, currently has 154 caps to her name, but says 'chronic pain' in the wake of her latest knee injury and surgery has brought her to the decision.
The centre-back, who left English Women's Super League side Aston Villa at the end of their season, has joined up with new Scots boss Melissa Andreatta's squad for Nations League A games at home to Austria and away to the Netherlands in the coming days.
She could add two more caps to her storied Scotland stint during those matches.
Explaining her rationale for drawing a line under a career which has also included Scotland's Euro 2017 campaign, Corsie – who battled back from her SIXTH knee surgery to make her Villa farewell on the park prior to end of the club season – told the BBC: 'My body has really wanted this to be my last year.
'Playing in the WSL, playing international football, I think it's the highest level, and to be turning 36 in August, knowing I'm going to stop playing at the highest point, it feels the right place for me.
'Getting back to playing at the end of the season was a really tough ambition and objective, but we got there.
'I was told by the surgeon before having the surgery that there was the option to have it, but the condition of my knee was fairly concerning and that – though surgery would potentially give some relief – there was 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.
'I wanted to do the surgery because I knew that I couldn't get back playing leaving it as it was.'
Detailing the difficulties of getting fit enough to return to playing at all, Corsie added: 'You have this self-belief, that: '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 in the house, sitting in the car for periods of time, getting in and out of the shower and having to climb out over the bath.
'All these little things, the day-to-day things that for me are now not normal.
'It's been a tough journey, but I've made it and it has been worth – I think – all those days in pain.'
Former Evening Express columnist Corsie is the great-granddaughter of Aberdeen FC legend Donald Colman.
Her first girls' team was Stonehaven Ladies, before switches to Aberdeen Ladies, Glasgow City, Notts County, Seattle Reign, Utah Royals, Canberra United, Birmingham City, Kansas City Current and, finally, Villa in 2022.
Corsie wasn't paid to play until she went full-time with Notts County in 2014. A qualified chartered accountant, she had previously worked as an auditor for Ernst and Young.
She will retire having captained the Scotland Women's National Team for a remarkable 14 – almost 15 – years.