Until We Meet Again

The Aston Villa left-back, retiring at 24 with a knee that specialists could not fix, speaks from her village in Alicante. Tomas describes going into an appointment expecting a solution and leaving devastated, then seeking two further opinions in Spain, one proposing an aggressive rebuild of the joint, neither offering any guarantee. She called her family in tears, told the medical staff and then Natalia Arroyo, and texted her teammates because she could not face breaking down in front of them. She talks about a period of feeling like a sad version of herself, weekly sessions with a psychologist she has seen since 18, the support of Gabi Nunes, and plans to resume her pharmacy degree.