Rachael’s Return

Catherine Etoe’s interview with the Hibernian vice-captain, the player previously known as Rachael Small, who gave birth to a daughter in 2018 and married Hibs men’s forward Martin Boyle while Scotland were at France 2019. She travelled to the Pinatar Cup hoping to show Shelley Kerr she was back to her best, was given half an hour against Ukraine and then played full-back in both remaining matches of Scotland’s title-winning campaign. Boyle recalls almost a decade in boys’ football before Aberdeen, captaining Scotland’s Under-19s in 2010 and debuting under Anna Signeul, and calls the extra-time defeat by Spain in the EURO 2013 play-off her most haunted football memory. She speaks openly about a miscarriage, urging greater awareness, about a full year out of the game, and about a swift comeback bringing a 2019 League Cup and a Player of the Year nomination.