At the age of 14, Fran Kirby had to deal with the sudden and devastating death of her mother. The next day she went back to school, carrying on her life as normal until grief and depression hit her hard, leading her to give up football, the game she loved.

This summer Kirby, now 25, is England’s leading creative force at a World Cup they hope to win and has earned the nickname “Mini Messi”.

In this episode of the new in-depth podcast, LifeTimes, England’s leading women’s footballer tells Matt Dickinson how she overcame a shattering loss to rebuild her life and her career.

Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss an episode, including the opening show with Paul Pogba.

This episode is hosted by The Times Chief Sports Writer Matt Dickinson and produced by Lucy Lavery, it is a Times Sport production, to discover more of our award winning journalism visit www.thetimes.co.uk/sport

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Get the future of podcasts.