Bolt From The Blue (Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah interview)

Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah joined Everton at eight and signed professionally with them at twenty-two, and the fifteen years in between were shaped by knee injuries: two anterior cruciate ligament ruptures on her left and one on her right, three or four years out in total. She says she never once thought she would not come back, and that the third was the hardest only because she knew exactly how long it would take. Willie Kirk, who took over in December 2018, has given her a new lease of life and shown her things about herself she did not know. She grew up in Anfield and Toxteth, started at the boys’ team Mini Dingles at four, and went to Everton from Kingsley United alongside Nikita Parris. Her only job outside football was building kitchen units.