Simone Magill: ‘Now felt like the right time to step away from football to start family’

Magill spent the majority of her career her club career at Everton, who she joined as an 18-year-old in 2013.

In 2022, after leading Northern Ireland to their first major tournament, she moved to Aston Villa for a fresh start, and she then switched to Birmingham City last year.

After briefly falling out of love for the game before her move to Villa, she has now settled with the Blues and said she was at a point in her life when she was ready to start a family.

“I was constantly asking myself when the right time was. At the end of last season I was really satisfied with everything I had done, and I was just ready.

“You can only plan so much, but I said I was happy to for us to start trying. It’s just really exciting, something very different and I’m really looking forward to it.”

Having played her last match in September, Magill will be out of action for the rest of the WSL2 season, and Northern Ireland’s 2027 World Cup qualifying campaign.

But it was her last prolonged period out of the game, when she sustained an ACL injury in Northern Ireland’s Euro 2022 opener, that she realised “there was more to life than football”.

“That was when I realised that I want to put myself first. I’ve put football first my whole life and in my career,” Magill said.

“I think it is important to recognise that there is so much more to me than Simone Magill the footballer. That’s very much the message that I want to get across.”