Former Arsenal striker Ian Wright has been financially supporting Kayleigh McDonald throughout her restoration from an ACL tear for the final 4 months, stepping up after McDonald’s then-club Stoke Metropolis mentioned she must pay out of pocket following the harm.
McDonald, now a free agent, tore her ACL in March 2024 whereas taking part in for the third division facet, who she mentioned informed her to hitch the Nationwide Well being Service’s ready listing to obtain therapy. In search of a faster operation, as is customary in skilled sports activities, requires searching for non-public medical care and McDonald found it could price her upwards of $25,000. She launched a GoFundMe in April of that yr.
“So unhappy to say that simply once I thought the ladies’s recreation was lastly getting someplace, I obtain the worst information that I must be a part of the NHS ready listing for surgical procedure after an harm I sustained taking part in a league recreation for my membership,” McDonald wrote on GoFundMe, per the Guardian. “I’ve suffered extra mentally than bodily with this harm, particularly the very fact it should inevitably finish my soccer profession. I am at the moment off work, not capable of stroll, not incomes any cash however nonetheless having the burden of paying my payments. Simply to see a marketing consultant, it is over a month of ready time. I will not be capable to reside financially.”
The fundraiser gained sufficient traction on-line, which is how Wright caught wind of the state of affairs, per the Telegraph. Wright then employed a sports activities lawyer to symbolize McDonald and Stoke reversed course, footing the invoice for surgical procedure in Could. Stoke had been then solely keen to pay for McDonald’s rehabilitation till November however agreed to pay for periods in December after Wright intervened. He has been paying for McDonald’s rehab since January, which prices round $2,300 a month.
“Stoke mentioned they do not assume I used to be the place I ought to be and that they want to take over my rehab as a result of they actually cared about me, which I used to be a bit baffled by as a result of they did not as soon as test in on me,” McDonald informed the Instances. “Ian began paying in January and is paying for my rehab now.”
Wright by no means publicly shared that he was serving to McDonald, nor did he ask her to touch upon it or return the favor in any method.
“He or any of his group have by no means mentioned, ‘Are you able to say this about it?'” McDonald mentioned. “I as soon as messaged when he first helped me and I mentioned, ‘Do you thoughts if I give Ian slightly shout out on Twitter?’ And he mentioned, ‘If you wish to, however do not feel it’s worthwhile to.’ I’ve by no means felt that he needed something from me.”
The story solely got here to gentle this week after Eniola Aluko, the previous England ladies’s nationwide group participant, mentioned male analysts like Wright block alternatives for ladies in broadcasting. Many got here to Wright’s protection, partly as a result of he has solely often been an analyst for ladies’s soccer matches but in addition as a result of the Premier League winner has been a staunch supporter of the ladies’s recreation.
The ex-Arsenal star was on web site on the 2023 Girls’s World Cup, the place England completed second, however was mainly there as a fan and solely coated two video games for broadcasters. Wright has additionally backed ladies’s soccer in different methods, most notably partnering with Barclays to launch the Ian Wright Teaching Fund in 2023. The fund, which additionally acquired a virtually $20,000 donation from Wright himself, goals to extend the variety of ladies in teaching roles on the grassroots stage and has supported as many as 664 coaches for his or her stage one coaching course.
“He is a standard man,” McDonald mentioned. “He is a legend and simply appears such a real individual with a coronary heart. He is passionate concerning the ladies’s recreation. I do not assume individuals give him sufficient credit score for what he does. I really feel like we will not win. Years in the past, all we’d have needed was the boys to be leaping in, elevating consciousness and bringing extra followers over to the ladies’s recreation. Then you definately’ve bought somebody who’s so passionate concerning the ladies’s recreation — and you’ll inform he is passionate. He is aware of each single participant within the Girls’s Tremendous League. He isn’t simply doing a little bit of analysis, he genuinely does love ladies’s soccer. All my mates [from women’s football], some are ex-Eire or ex-England gamers, they name him ‘Uncle Ian’ now due to what he is achieved.”
