Latest news with #WillVaulks
BBC News
10 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
🎧 'Tough to be the one letting the team down'
"The last seven or eight games were pretty tough if I'm being honest. It wasn't great."The Dub's Robyn Cowen is joined by Oxford United midfielder Will Vaulks as they discuss his debut season with the U's, what the future holds for the 31-year-old and battling through pain to help the team avoid sustained an ankle injury towards the end of last season but chose to delay surgery until the U's had secured safety."There was no pressure from the club, it was more myself. It just didn't feel the right time to say 'I'll just get the operation now, look after myself and leave the players to it'," Vaulks said."If you would have asked my other four clubs I've had before now, 'reliable' probably would have been a word you'd have used to describe me."I had a couple of errors that led to goals that really affected me as well. It was tough coming to a place with a lot of expectation and then to be the one that was letting the team down. That's what hurts as a player."Listen to the full episode and more on BBC Sounds.
BBC News
20-02-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Oxford United: 'Stop slagging my touch and check on your mate'
Oxford United has become the first professional football club to sign up for a suicide prevention charity's workplace new partnership with Baton of Hope will see the club deliver in-house personal suicide prevention training to all of its players and staff.U's first team player Will Vaulks said the topic was something he was "incredibly passionate" about, having lost two grandparents to pledge comes on the third anniversary of the death of Oxford United legend Joey Beauchamp, who took his own life at home in Kidlington in 2022. Vaulks, who is an ambassador for Baton of Hope, said: "It's been a long time since I lost my granddads, and now I feel I want to have an impact on making a change - instead of me just coming on and talking about my loss, I want to actually put things in place that prevent suicides.""We want our fans to listen to these things and realise that they can talk, they can seek help," the 31-year-old told BBC Radio Oxford. He said men were "notoriously not great" at talking about their mental health, but added: "That's where football brings us all together - the match day talking about the game, you could actually just delve a little bit deeper with your friends.""You guys and girls in the stands, just have a little bit more of a conversation about each other - maybe stop slagging off my first touch for a minute and check on your mate next to you," Vaulks in 2023 by two fathers who lost their sons to suicide, Baton of Hope was established with the vision of creating a zero-suicide society. Mike McCarthy, whose son took his own life four years ago, said the charity's workplace pledge was a "kind of kitemark for best practice when it comes to suicide prevention in the workplace".On Oxford United's commitment to the pledge he said: "People look up to these guys and respect them and they listen to them, and to have role models like that embracing the idea that we should all think about suicide in the workplace and suicide prevention is incredibly important."They're doing something practical to try and make a change for the future, and I can't thank them enough for the way that they've embraced this." The new partnership forms part of the club's suicide prevention and mental health initiative, Can We Talk?, which was launched in October is currently the largest killer of men under the age of 50 in UK. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line. You can follow BBC Oxfordshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Staff and players send wishes to fan who had cardiac arrest
STAFF and players from both Oxford United and Portsmouth were quick to send their wishes to a U's fan who suffered a cardiac arrest during the game between the two sides. The Sky Bet Championship fixture was delayed for more than half an hour during the first half while emergency services dealt with the incident in the home end of the north stand. After the game, United confirmed that the supporter is in a stable condition and receiving hospital treatment. U's head coach Gary Rowett said: 'My immediate thoughts of course are for the supporter who needed the attention. 'From what I can gather, they managed to revive the guy and get him into an ambulance. I think he was there with his son, so first and foremost, hopefully he's okay. 'As a flip side to that, of course when that happens and when players have to go off the pitch, it becomes a little bit of a fractured first half and it becomes very difficult to create any sort of rhythm or continuity within that. 'You can't manage it. It's not for us to manage. We have to wait for instructions and to be told what we're doing.' United midfielder Will Vaulks added: 'First of all, my thoughts go to the fan who was in the stand and their family, and I hope everything is okay. We're hearing some positive news hopefully.' Last month, a Pompey fan died following a medical emergency at the start of their home game against Middlesbrough. Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent this afternoon: 'It's difficult for both sides to be honest. We dealt with it really well for the Middlesbrough game, but that was at the start of the game. 'These were different circumstances here. We'd played 12 minutes and we were really good in the first 12 minutes, and after that, we dropped off a little bit and didn't really adjust to the stoppage well. 'It would be a bit crass of me not to mention the fan, and the comms that we've heard was that the fan was breathing and stable, and hopefully that's continued. That was the most important thing. 'We had a little bit of a tricky spell after that and then settled quite nicely.'
