Georgia Stanway has hailed the influence of former Manchester United player Luke Chadwick on her career, saying she speaks to him on a regular basis and he has become an important part of her career.
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Chadwick came through the youth system at Manchester United and went on to make 39 first team appearances before going on to play for the likes of West Ham, Stoke, Norwich and MK Dons.
The former England Under-21 player has spoken out in recent years about suffering mentally due to abuse he received during his playing days and is keen to help current players deal with the mental side of the game.
Stanway is not suffering with the same problems the former Red Devils man did, but she says he has been a tremendous help as a sounding board since they began to work together in 2021.
He has been helping her during the current Women’s World Cup, with Stanway an integral part of the England side which is preparing to face Australia in the semi-finals on Wednesday.
‘He went through his battles as a player and I was facing, not similar battles, but my individual battles, at Manchester City,’ said the 24-year-old.
‘He hoped to help mentor players and hopefully put people on the right path, making sure that they don’t experience what he did, or if they do experience it then he can say, “This is what helped me”. He’s honestly the best guy, one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
‘Once or twice a week I speak with (Chadwick) and that’s something that I’ve done for a few years now. I’m not afraid to say it, I went through a time at City where it was a little bit up and down in terms of my mentality, my position, everything was changing and he was my go-to in terms of getting clarity on my position, clarity on what I wanted to achieve in that season.
‘My goal was to get to the Olympics. I set out a plan at the start and was like “this is what I want to do, this is what I want to achieve”, whether it be goals, whether it be assists, whether it be making sure my house is tidy on a weekly basis.
‘In this tournament, (we’ve) spoken every match day minus one, in the evening before the game, and that just allows me to process the information that we’ve got from England and process the information that I’ve done throughout the season and just knowing that the work is done and just to go out there and play my game.
‘You rely on the good luck message before the game and he never fails. Always after a game, he’s the first one to say something positive and then it’s like, “OK, let me know when you want to talk”, so it’s always on my terms, which is so understanding as well.’
Stanway will be in action for England on Wednesday when the Lionesses take on Australia in the World Cup semi-final in Sydney at 11am UK time.
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