An investigation following the death of Sheffield United player Maddy Cusack has found no evidence of wrongdoing.

Cusack, who made 110 United appearances, died aged 27 in September.

United opened what they described as a third-party investigation into processes and conduct at the club after Cusack’s family raised concerns.

In November, the Maddy Cusack Foundation shared a speech online attributed to Cusack’s mother which it said was given at a memorial service in October. The speech said Cusack’s spirit “was allowed to be broken” by football.

However, the club announced on Monday that the investigation had now closed with no evidence found of any wrongdoing.

“Following a thorough review of the valuable input provided by each of the key witnesses put forward by Maddy’s family and the club, the investigation has found no evidence of wrongdoing,” the South Yorkshire club said in a statement published on their official website.

“The club is always looking for ways to evolve and will reflect on the outcomes and recommendations arising from the investigation to consider how processes and policies may be improved.”

United said everyone at the club remained “deeply saddened” by Cusack’s death. She had worn the number eight shirt “with distinction”, the club said, and was a “valued and popular member” of their marketing department.

“Following Maddy’s death, the club provided staff with the opportunity to engage with additional external support,” the club statement continued.

“As part of the club’s commitment to continual improvement, we have and will continue to review and expand the club-wide well-being support offered to our staff and to increase the learning and development opportunities for all staff around language and culture, welfare and mental health awareness.

“We have also recently strengthened our women’s and girls’ structure with the addition of a new highly experienced head of women’s and girls’ football and other key appointments.

“We wish to offer support to Maddy’s family and the Maddy Cusack Foundation, MC8, and we hope to work with them to continue the lasting positive impact Maddy had on those who knew her.”

A speech said to have been given by Cusack’s mother at a memorial in October read: “The saddest and most utterly heartbreaking reason why I am having to stand here and speak to you today is because of football.

“From February this year, the indomitable, irrepressible spirit, the spirit called Maddy, the spirit that I had so fearlessly protected was allowed to be broken. Taking her away from me.

“Those who knew Maddy well will be aware that she had no long-standing mental health issues or troubles. Not that there would be anything to be ashamed of if there were, but there were not. Those that didn’t know her need to know that.

“Maddy was a happy-go-lucky, carefree girl with everything to live for and by last Christmas could be described as being at her happiest. This all changed gradually from February this year.”

Jonathan Morgan, the head coach of United’s women’s team, was understood to have been the subject of an investigation by the club. It was reported he had stepped away from his duties while an investigation was conducted. The club have been contacted for comment regarding Morgan.

The Maddy Cusack Foundation has been contacted for comment following the club’s statement on Monday.

John ‘Shark’ Hanlon and his son Paddy Hanlon have their sights set on another successful raid on Tuesday when they head to Catterick in search of another special day for the family.

The popular trainer is a regular visitor to UK tracks but now has extra incentive for his forays across the Irish Sea as his young son attempts to forge his own riding career.

The 16-year-old is 0-23 in bumpers in Ireland but has made a blistering start to things in the UK, partnering Chef D’Etat to victory at Worcester in the summer before striking in his first ride over obstacles at Bangor last week.

Hanlon has never been shy in giving young jockeys an opportunity and helped nurture the early stages of Rachael Blackmore’s career, while most recently he has entrusted young Jordan Gainford with the keys to star chaser Hewick.

Now he is taking great pride in legging up his own flesh and blood as licensing restrictions in Ireland mean Hanlon junior could become a familiar sight on a British racecourse over the next year.

“It’s different and your heart would be in your mouth. But he knows nothing else and doesn’t want to know anything other than horses, horses, horses,” said Hanlon when asked how it felt watching his son in action.

“In Ireland you have to be 17 before you can get a license to ride over hurdles or in point-to-points.

“He rode a point-to-point horse the other day and finished third and the horse he rode at Bangor was his first ride over hurdles. It was great how it has worked out.

“He won’t be 17 until June and he is just tipping away and getting a few rides over there (in the UK).”

Hanlon is yet to finish outside of the first two in three UK rides and it was somewhat a family affair when the youngster steered his father’s Mullins Cross to a nine-length victory at Bangor last Friday, giving all connected a day which will live long in the memory.

“It was great the other day because we bred the filly ourselves,” continued Hanlon.

“Paddy’s grandfather stood the sire Valirann, my wife bred him and it ran in her colours and I trained it. His younger brother led him up and we were all there, so it was a great day, fabulous.”

Mullins Cross will be in action again in North Yorkshire, with Brian Hughes handed riding duties on this occasion, but the trainer’s son will seek further glory aboard the family-owned Dragon Rock and confidence is high ahead of the Download Raceday Ready Today Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle.

The teenager may then need to spread his wings for further opportunities as the season goes on, but his father is optimistic that plenty of chances to hone his skills in the saddle will come his way throughout the winter.

“He has a right nice ride there tomorrow and then might not have much for a while because I have very little to go over with,” continued Hanlon.

“He has his feet on the ground and hopefully a few other trainers might use him.

“I’ve had a couple of phone calls from trainers wanting to take him on so it will be interesting.

“The horse in the boys’ race tomorrow will have a right chance and the filly he rode last week will have a right chance as well. The two rode out this morning and are in good form.”

John ‘Shark’ Hanlon has confirmed star chaser Hewick will line up in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase on Boxing Day – but is on the hunt for a new jockey, with regular rider Jordan Gainford out injured.

Some of Hewick’s finest hours have come in the hands of Gainford, who has formed a brilliant association with the eight-year-old and was in the saddle when the duo tasted American Grand National glory in 2022.

However, he has missed out on Hewick’s last three outings through injury and, although Hanlon is adamant the ride remains Gainford’s when fit, the young pilot once again faces a spell on the sidelines following an injury suffered at Naas last week.

“Hewick goes to Kempton for the King George, we’ve made up our minds this morning,” said Hanlon.

“We don’t know who is riding him yet, as Jordan Gainford got hurt, but we will wait and see.

“Jordan won’t be back in time, but hopefully he will come back all right, he got a bad fall. I was talking to him and he was happy and I told him Hewick will be his ride whenever he comes back, but he won’t be there for Kempton.

“We will just have to work out who will be there and who won’t be there and I have a few names at the top of my head, but we will have to wait and see.”

James Owen’s Burdett Road is on track for his Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle bid at Chepstow after his Cheltenham form received a significant boost on Saturday.

The three-year-old was formerly trained on the Flat by both Roger Varian and Michael Bell, notably taking the Golden Gates Stakes at Royal Ascot in June for the latter.

His final run on the level was a third-placed effort in the Group Three Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor in late August, after which he was gelded and sent to Owen for a juvenile hurdling campaign.

At Huntingdon in November, he was an instant success in his new career, taking a two-mile contest by an effortless 12 lengths, with the whole field strung out behind him.

Burdett Road was then stepped markedly up in level for the Grade Two JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham later the same month and was an impressive winner again under Harry Cobden, accelerating up the hill to secure a six-and-a-half-length victory over Jack Jones’ An Bradan Feasa.

Burdett Road became the Triumph Hurdle favourite as a result of that win, whereas Jones began to eye the Fred Winter for his well-regarded runner-up.

Both of those aspirations began to take shape at the weekend, as An Bradan Feasa returned to Cheltenham to contest a class two edition of the JCB Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle series and prevailed by three lengths.

Owen was pleased to see the prior Prestbury Park form boosted and intends to press on with his plan of running Burdett Road in the Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow on December 27, a Grade Two in which the Gredley family have been successful before with another former Flat horse in Allmankind.

“He’s really good, I’m very happy with him,” said Owen. “He’s been training well and I was really pleased to see the horse he beat win his trial at Cheltenham at the weekend.

“It was nice and Burdett Road has trained very well himself at home since, he’s schooled well and the plan is to go to the Finale on the 27th (of December) at Chepstow – all being well.

“If the ground was really deep, we might think differently, but that’s the plan at the moment.

“He had a busy enough Flat campaign, so I’d say he’d only have one more run before Cheltenham, hopefully that’ll be at Chepstow. We want to go to Cheltenham with a fresh horse.

“That’s the route Tim and Mr (Bill) Gredley want to go, that’s the route they went with Allmankind.

“I know it’s a Grade Two now but it’s still good prize money and if we didn’t end up going there, we’d probably end up going back to Cheltenham for the trials day during January.”

Champ is poised to make his reappearance in the Howden Long Walk Hurdle after featuring among the 10 confirmations for this weekend’s Ascot showpiece.

The Nicky Henderson-trained 11-year-old was the Long Walk champion in 2021 which was the last time the race was held at its traditional home of Ascot, but he had to settle for third when the race was rearranged for Kempton’s Boxing Day card 12 months ago.

The Cheltenham Festival scorer was last seen finishing a well-held fifth at Aintree in the spring but is reported to be in good heart ahead of his belated return to the track.

“He’s a great old horse, Nicky is happy with him and the plan is, all being well, to go there,” said owner JP McManus’ racing manager Frank Berry.

“He runs well fresh so you would hope he would run well.

“He enjoys Ascot and has run some good races around there and Nicky is happy with him at the minute.”

Last year’s race went to Emma Lavelle’s Paisley Park who has been something of a permanent feature in the Grade One contest in recent years, now seeking a fourth victory.

That would make the popular 11-year-old the joint most successful horse in the race’s history, tied with the great French raider Baracouda in the record books.

Paisley Park showed the fire still burned brightly when a fast-finishing second to Jeremy Scott’s Stayers’ Hurdle runner-up Dashel Drasher in Newbury’s Long Distance Hurdle and the duo will do battle once again.

Meanwhile, it was Botox Has who got the better of Dashel Drasher at Wetherby before that and he is one of two in the race for Gary Moore alongside the enigmatic Goshen.

Paul Nicholls’ recent course winner Blueking d’Oroux is two from two at Ascot and will step up in trip attempting to continue his fine start to the current campaign, while Dan Skelton’s West Balboa is another on a steep upwards curve and throws her hat into the mix having impressed at Aintree on her return last month.

Marie’s Rock is one of the more notable names missing from the list of possibles, with owners Middleham Park Racing relying on the second Ditcheat candidate, Red Risk.

Fergal O’Brien’s Crambo and Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Gowel Road are the others that remain in contention.

The 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner will be announced during a live show on Tuesday at MediaCityUK in Salford.

The six nominees have been revealed, with Mary Earps the favourite to succeed fellow England footballer Beth Mead.

Here, the PA news agency takes a closer look at those in the running.

The 30-year-old Manchester United and England goalkeeper helped the Lionesses reach the World Cup final in Australia in August. Spain ran out 1-0 winners to prevent England adding to their European crown, but Earps, who saved a penalty in the final and kept three clean sheets during the tournament, was awarded the Golden Glove.

The second-highest England Test wicket-taker with 604 scalps, 37-year-old Broad announced his retirement on July 29 on the penultimate day of the fifth and final Ashes Test against Australia at the Oval. He signed off in dramatic fashion, hitting a six off his final ball faced and taking a wicket with his final delivery to secure a win that resulted in the series being drawn, with Australia retaining the Ashes.

The three-time British flat racing champion jockey triumphed in two British classics this year, winning the 2000 Guineas on Chaldean and the Oaks on Soul Sister. Milan-born Dettori, 52, announced in December 2022 that he would retire after 2023 but in October he revealed plans to move to California and continue to race in the United States and on the international circuit.

The Liverpool-born heptathlete came back from injury to win her second world title in Budapest this year. She claimed her first world crown in Doha in 2019. Her build-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics was undermined by an Achilles injury and it flared up during the 200 metres, forcing her to pull out. The 30-year-old bounced back with a Commonwealth Games title in Birmingham last year and then conquered the world again in Hungary.

The Northern Irishman was Europe’s top-scorer, winning four out of five matches, as the team bounced back from their heaviest defeat to the United States in the 2021 to triumph in this year’s Ryder Cup – the fifth time he has won the event. Four-time major champion McIlroy, 34, also registered 13 top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour in 2023, won the Scottish Open, retained the Race to Dubai and spent time in the world number one spot.

World number one wheelchair tennis player Hewett this year was singles champion at both the Australian Open and US Open and runner-up in the French Open and Wimbledon tournaments, while in doubles, he claimed three out of the grand slam titles alongside Gordon Reid. The 26-year-old also helped Great Britain win the World Team Cup.

Mary Earps is the bookmakers’ odds-on favourite to be voted the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year for 2023 on Tuesday night.

Earps was a key part of the England football team which reached the Women’s World Cup final in the summer, having been crowned champions of Europe in 2022.

She has been shortlisted for the prestigious BBC prize alongside former cricketer Stuart Broad, jockey Frankie Dettori, athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, tennis player Alfie Hewett and golfer Rory McIlroy.

Earps saved a penalty from Spain’s Jenni Hermoso in the World Cup final, but the Lionesses slipped to a 1-0 defeat in Sydney. The 30-year-old was awarded the FIFA Golden Glove as the tournament’s best goalkeeper.

In September she was also voted England’s women’s player of the year and helped her club Manchester United finish second in the Women’s Super League last season with 14 clean sheets.

Her future at United is uncertain, however, with Earps’ contract with the club due to expire next summer.

Earps also hit the headlines early on at the World Cup when she spoke about the hurt she felt that sportswear manufacturer Nike had not made her England goalkeeper’s replica jersey available to purchase before the tournament.

After mounting pressure, the sports brand released her green long-sleeved Lionesses shirt and it sold out in five minutes. Earps told Sky News at the weekend she thought the company had learned its lesson.

“On this topic, they know that they got this wrong and that’s why they’ve done this correction – a big company like Nike, they wouldn’t do that if they didn’t know it wasn’t right and that there was an injustice there,” Earps said.

“They did the right thing and I can’t thank the public enough for their support and we wouldn’t be in this position without it.

“I was really ‘um-ing and ah-ing’ whether to use my voice and to speak on it or not. I thought I was just speaking for a niche of goalkeepers, but it turned out to be support from much wider group of people.

“I think from that, collectively, we’ve really changed the world, so thank you to everyone.”

Broad announced he was retiring from cricket during the fifth Ashes Test in the summer and bowed out in spectacular fashion. The 37-year-old hit a six off his final ball and took the final wicket as England won the match to level the series, though Australia retained the urn.

Dettori, 52, secured a series of big wins in his farewell year in UK racing, including the 2000 Guineas on Chaldean and the Oaks on Soul Sister. He is set to continue riding in the United States next year.

Johnson-Thompson claimed the world heptathlon title for the second time in Budapest in the summer after a calf injury wrecked her hopes of Olympic glory in Tokyo in 2021.

Hewett won seven wheelchair tennis singles tournaments in 2023, including the Australian and US Open titles. He also secured the doubles titles at the Australian and French Opens plus Wimbledon alongside partner Gordon Reid.

McIlroy was a key part of Europe’s victorious Ryder Cup-winning team in October and finished in the top 10 at three of the year’s four majors.

Former Liverpool player and manager Kenny Dalglish will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ceremony in Salford on Tuesday night.

Steve Kerr was happy that other players stepped up as Stephen Curry's NBA record for successive games with a made 3-pointer ended on Sunday.

The Warriors beat the Portland Trail Blazers 118-114, but Curry was unable to make any shots from distance.

It ended his record run of 268 games with a successful 3-pointer, as the 35-year-old went 0-for-8 from range. It was the first time he failed to make a 3-pointer in a regulation game since November 8, 2018.

Curry had shot 6-of-8 from 3-point range in a win over the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday, and is the all-time leader in that regard, with 3,505 3-pointers across his career.

But coach Kerr knows the Warriors must not be so reliant on the two-time league MVP.

"We can't rely on Steph to bail us out on every single night," Kerr said.

"It was a tough night for him. But that's what a team is supposed to be about, everybody filling in for each other, different guys stepping up each night. 

"That's a great sign, because he's carried us for long enough this year. We need to give him more help."

Curry had just seven points from 31 minutes on the court, but Klay Thompson delivered for the Warriors with 28 points, while Andrew Wiggins contributed 25 from the bench.

Jerami Grant led the game for Portland, with 30 points, while also chipping in with seven rebounds and six assists.

"I feel great, trying to be efficient every night, that’s the goal," Thompson said in an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area.

"Not scoring 50, but just making the most [of chances], taking the shots, and I think I just did well from the last game. Just a great all-round effort."

The San Francisco 49ers stretched their winning streak to six games and clinched the NFC West with a 45-29 win over the Arizona Cardinals.

San Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy improved upon his MVP credentials with four touchdowns and 242 passing yards in another stellar addition to his breakout season.

Arizona put some pressure on early with a touchdown in the first two minutes, but the 49ers responded with back-to-back touchdowns of their own and never let up from there.

Fellow contenders the Dallas Cowboys were brought back to reality courtesy of a 31-10 demolition at the hands of the Buffalo Bills.

The 10-win Cowboys’ defence looked powerless against Buffalo’s running game, with James Cook, Josh Allen and Latavius Murray all finding the end zone on the ground.

Despite the loss, other results from earlier in the day ensured the Cowboys would be in the playoffs for the third-straight year.

The Cleveland Browns scored 13 fourth-quarter points to snatch a 20-17 victory over the Chicago Bears.

The two sides were level at 7-7 at the break after tight ends Cole Kmet and David Njoku scored touchdowns but the Bears took a 10-point lead into the fourth after Tremaine Edmunds returned an interception 45 yards for a touchdown.

But the Browns saved their best till last and two Dustin Hopkins field goals partnered an Amari Cooper touchdown to give them the win, with 38-year-old Joe Flacco throwing for 374 yards.

Super Bowl champions the Kansas City Chiefs returned to winning ways with a 27-17 victory over the New England Patriots.

Running back Jerick McKinnon caught one touchdown pass and threw another to Rashee Rice while Patrick Mahomes threw for 305 yards, two scores and two interceptions.

Baker Mayfield threw for four touchdowns as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earned a 34-20 win over the in-form Green Bay Packers.

The 28-year-old quarterback racked up 381 passing yards over the game to four different scorers, David Moore, Mike Evans, Rachaad White and Ko Kieft, to help wrap up a convincing win.

Raheem Mostert rushed for two touchdowns as the Miami Dolphins crushed the New York Jets 30-0.

The 31-year-old opened the scoring in the first quarter but the damage was done in the second when he ran over for his double after Jaylen Waddle’s 60-yard score had already given the home side a healthy advantage and moved them up to second in the AFC.

The New Orleans Saints scored 17 second-half points to secure a 24-6 victory over the New York Giants.

Derek Carr threw for three touchdowns as the Saints took over in the second period without reply from the Giants.

Ka’imi Fairbairn kicked an overtime field goal to help the Houston Texans claim a 19-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans.

The Carolina Panthers scored two field goals in the final quarter to claim just their second win this campaign with a 9-7 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Washington Commanders 28-20, the Detroit Lions cruised past the Denver Broncos 42-17 and the Baltimore Ravens eclipsed the Jacksonville Jaguars 23-7.