How Toone is navigating grief through football

Sport InsightHow Toone is navigating grief through footballPublished26 May 2026Updated 29 May 2026Image source, Getty ImagesBySophie TrifonoffBBC Sport journalistThere will be an empty chair at Ella Toone's wedding this summer.The England and Manchester United midfielder is preparing to walk down the aisle without her dad Nick - the man she dedicates every goal to and credits as the "main reason" where she is in her career.In a new BBC documentary, 24 Hours with Ella Toone, she opens up on grief and navigating that as a professional athlete, while also ensuring her father's legacy and being a "pioneer for women's football" is now helping the next generation.To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedFigure caption, 24 Hours with Ella TooneToone knew that hours after every match, she would always get a phone call from Nick.He and her mum, Karen, would always come to watch Toone's matches, but Nick also recorded them on TV so he could have another look when he got home before calling his daughter for a "debrief on the whole game"."He was just obsessed," says the 26-year-old. "He loved women's football more than he loved watching the men's game. He knew all the players, he was passionate about where I was in my career, the team that I had, the way we were playing."He would go into any pub and talk about women's football and talk about me."Toone adds her dad was "the driving force" behind her football, taking her up and down the country for club matches and travelling abroad for England games."Me and dad were all about football, that was our thing that we had together," she reveals. "He was probably one of the first people that really saw potential in me."The day after Toone scored in England's 2-1 win over Germany in the 2022 European Championship final, she had no idea her dad had just been diagn...