Aston Villa’s Rachel Daly: ‘It’s given me more of a focus: club football is my one job’

Former England striker on retiring from the Lionesses, being a role model, and taking on Chelsea in the WSL A year after taking up golf, Rachel Daly has already reached a handicap of 19.

“I think that’s too generous, I was playing really well in the summer,” she point outs before politely declaring that further questions about her pastimes are out of bounds.

“I’m not that exciting, to be honest,” Daly says.

“I walk the dogs, play golf.

I don’t do a whole lot.

I don’t lead a very exciting life.” Instead, Daly wants to talk about the new Women’s Super League season, which is more than fair enough.

Coincidentally, by next summer, 19 will be the number of seasons Daly has played at the top level, ever since breaking into Leeds’ first team as a 16-year-old in 2008, and therefore it feels reasonable to disagree with her view that a former Olympian, who played 84 times for England and was the WSL’s player of the season just three years ago, does not lead an exciting life.

Yet there is another number on Daly’s mind as she discusses her role as Aston Villa’s captain.

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