England goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck has spoken in depth on the shocking stroke she suffered at the age of 24, revealing that she is lucky to not only to still have her career but her vision.
Roebuck, who has 11 caps, first noticed something wrong around the Christmas period of 2023.
Her club, Man City at the time, thought her symptoms were that of a concussion at first but further scans revealed the worrying truth.
‘It filled me with panic, but I never had in my mind that it was a stroke,’ Roebuck said in a sit down interview with BBC Sport.
‘The doctor 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.’
An occipital infarct is the formal name given to an ischemic stroke, which is caused by a blood clot clogging an artery in the brain.
Lionesses keeper Ellie Roebuck has opened up on the stroke that made her fear for her career
An occipital lobe stroke may cause visual disturbances like blurry vision, hallucinations or in worst cases, blindness.
‘I’m lucky because I should have lost my vision,’ Roebuck continued. ‘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.
‘My first question was ‘am I going to play football again? 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’.
‘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.’
The ordeal occurred just weeks after Roebuck had signed a pre-contract agreement to join Barcelona in the summer and she was able to fulfil that dream.
Now 25, Roebuck made her Barca 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.
Roebuck revealed on social media why she has not played a competitive game this season
The stopper was a part of the triumphant Lionesses team at the Euros in 2022 and the team that reached the World Cup final a year later.
She will now be pushing for a recall amid uncertainty over Wiegman’s goalkeeping pecking order.
‘It’s difficult because that’s something that’s not in my hands as such,’ Roebuck explained of a potential international return. ‘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.’
