‘Chronic pain’ forces Scotland captain Corsie to retire

Rachel Corsie, the captain of Scotland, will turn 40 next week after enduring “chronic pain” from a knee injury that kept her out the majority of the season.

After receiving her first call-up since July for the final two Nations League A games against Austria on Friday and the Netherlands on Tuesday, the 35-year-old will join Melissa Andreatta’s first Scotland camp on Monday. The pair will play live on BBC Scotland’s live television program, BBC Scotland.

After missing out on the Women’s Super League team since September, the defender made her comeback to play for Aston Villa on April 30. She announced her departure from Villa at the end of the season on May 9.

Corsie, who has 154 international caps and 20 goals and has represented the United States in the 2018 and 2019 World Cups, describes retirement as “the right time.”

She said, “My body has really wanted this to be my last year.”

Corsie, who was born in Aberdeen, started with Glasgow City in 2008 and won 13 major awards while playing for Scotland’s then-dominant force before making his debut for Notts County in 2014.

After returning to City in 2015, she enjoyed a six-year stint in the NWSL with Seattle Reign, the Utah Royals, and the Kansas City Current. She also made loan moves to Birmingham City and Canberra United, where she won a second SWPL and Scottish Cup championship.

The center-back returned from a sixth operation on her left knee for their final two league games by joining Villa in 2022, completing her 18-year club career with the WSL team.

Corsie remarked, “We got there, but it was a really tough ambition and goal to get back to playing at the end of the season.”

Before the procedure, the surgeon informed me that I had the option to have it because of my knee’s condition, which was concerning, and because there was a good chance that the damage that had been done over the course of my career would have a significant impact on my life.

I decided to have the operation because I was aware that I couldn’t play back, so I kept it that way.

You believe that I’ve already done it before and that I could do it again.

“Basically, I was just in chronic pain all the time.” Taking the shower and having to climb out of the bath require constant walking up and down the stairs in the house.

“All these minor things, the routine things that are now unusual for me.

The captain was present throughout the training facility earlier this year when the Scots experienced another play-off pain in their qualifying for Euro 2025 against Finland.

She played a crucial role in their qualifying for their first major tournament, Euro 2017 two years prior, and led her country to victory in France in 2019 at their first World Cup.

Never have we reached such heights before. And while a swansong in Switzerland should have been in your head six months ago, Hampden or the Netherlands will come in close second.

Although she acknowledges that when the final whistle comes, she’ll be “a total mess.”

When Corsie was asked if this might be the ideal goodbye, she responded, “I think it does for me and I think it’s a really unique opportunity. “

She continued, “I’ve needed the light that’s been there at times to keep going and to keep pushing,” she continued.