Lionesses goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck opens up on impact of stroke: ‘I should have lost my vision’

The 25-year-old is back in the England squad for the first time since suffering a major health scare in March

Ellie Roebuck has returned to the England squad for the first time since having a stroke last year (The FA via Getty Images)

Lionesses goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck has revealed that she was lucky to keep her vision after suffering a stroke last year.

Having left Manchester City for Barcelona at the end of last season while recovering, Roebuck made her first appearance in 19 months in December and is hoping to force her way back into Sarina Wiegman’s plans.

The 25-year-old was left fearing for her career following the worrying incident, with doctors informing her that she had been fortunate not to go blind after suffering an infarct in her occipital lobe.

"I'm lucky because I should have lost my vision," Roebuck told BBC Sport. "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.

"It filled me with panic, but I never had in my mind that it was a stroke. He 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.

"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 stroke was caused by a small hole in Roebuck’s heart, which subsequently closed up by itself.

The goalkeeper was part of the England squad that triumphed at the Euros in 2022 and reached the World Cup final a year later, and will now push for a recall with considerable 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."