After 331 days full of mental and physical resilience, the ups and downs in her rehabilitation and the emotional support of everyone around her, Ella Morris made her comeback from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in our FA Cup clash with Chelsea recently.
But this journey started on 13 May, 2025, when the young full-back received ‘one of the greatest honours’ in football and a moment she has dreamed about as a kid.
Impressing in the back end of the 2024/25 campaign, where she overcame a number of injury setbacks to be named our Junior Supporters’ Player of the Year, her excellent performances were recognised outside of the Club, particularly by Sarina Weigman, as she earned a maiden call-up to the England senior squad.
Arriving at St George’s Park for the first time as a Lioness, that special moment for Ella would quickly turn to devastation as, in her second training session with the national team, Ella suffered her ACL injury which, unsurprisingly, was difficult to digest at the time.
“It was devastating - that's the only word I can use,” she told us, opening up the moment when she suffered her injury in an exclusive interview in the matchday programme at the weekend. “I felt I'd built myself back up to the top level [towads the end of last season] and then received the greatest honour of getting a call up for your country - something that was all I ever dreamed about as a kid. But, then two days in with England, instantly I knew it had gone.
“I had a lot of thoughts, like, ‘why me? I do everything right, why does it have to be me?’ It was super tough, but something that helped me massively that doesn't get talked about much is that actually I went to therapy.
“I'm someone that struggles to talk to people who I'm close to about how I'm feeling if I'm struggling, because I never want to put the burden on them. So, having someone external that I could talk to and release all that to was massively beneficial, and it really helped me get back on track with my emotions, so that really worked for me.”
However, after feeling the disappointment of suffering her second ACL injury in her career, Ella was quickly back in the recovery mindset with the determination to work through her rehabilitation.
And, 10 months after suffering her injury with the Lionesses, she was back on the pitch in Lilywhite when she came on for the final 20 minutes of our FA Cup quarter-final clash at Chelsea earlier this month.
“Obviously I felt really proud and excited when Martin [Ho] originally told me to come on,” she explained. “During the game, my mindset wasn't thinking I haven't played a game in a long time or I'm just coming back so what's going to happen, it was actually just that I'm playing a game of football, which actually felt really nice.
“It was weird for me because it actually felt underwhelming in the end. You've had that goal set in your head for months - or years for some other people - so actually, afterwards, I was a bit like, ‘oh, that's it done now’, for something that's been my focus for so long.”
The road to recovery can be a lonely place, especially for such a long-term injury, working in the gym seeing all her team-mates out on the grass or watching games from the stands at Brisbane Road and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
But, despite not being involved in the action on the pitch, Ella continued to feel the support of her team-mates in her rehab process, particularly from someone who knew exactly what she was going through.
“They were brilliant,” she added. “A special shout out to Kit [Graham] because she had done her ACL for a second time as well and she was coming to the end stage of her rehab just as I had got injured, so to see her hard work and see how much she'd come through was really inspiring at the time.
“When I got injured myself, she was actually one of the first people I called. Since Kit has gone out on loan for the second half of the season, Jess [Naz] and Maite [Oroz] have done their ACLs this season so, I’ve tried to take on that role that Kit was for me to try to help them as well.”
Outside of her rehab at Hotspur Way, Ella also wanted to use her spare time to give something back to the local community with regular visits to the All Dogs Matter shelter with Bethany England and played her part in foundation visits.
“Being around Bethany, especially, is so inspiring, seeing how passionate she is about her work in the community,” she explained. “It's inspired me to see that there's a lot of stuff that I can do to help other people in and around me.
“It's something that I'd like to get involved in more and something that I think, as players, is such an important thing that we can do to inspire our community.”