DENISE O’SULLIVAN IS happily settled back in the US after less than six months at Liverpool. Now a Gotham FC player, there is lots to cover as she takes The 42‘s call.
“Apart from the injury, life’s really good,” the Ireland centurion begins from her new base, near New York.
The injury is a knee setback which has sidelined her for five weeks. It was a freak incident in training; the opposite knee to the one that has been dogged by MCL issues of late.
But O’Sullivan is back in team sessions this week and looking to “get in a rhythm again” after a disruptive few seasons. Off the pitch, as well as on it, of late.
In January, the 32-year-old midfielder left North Carolina Courage and swapped the NWSL, where she had spent over a decade, for the WSL. She joined relegation-threatened Liverpool on a permanent deal, for a reported club-record fee in the region of €350,000.
Five months and 28 days later, confirmation arrived that O’Sullivan had signed for NWSL champions Gotham on an initial one-year loan with an obligation for a permanent transfer.
A vacuum followed, which was soon filled with speculation. O’Sullivan is now ready to address it.
“When it got announced that I was leaving, I obviously got a bit of stick on social media, which is normal. People were saying, ‘Why did she come for six months? She’s wasting people’s time.’
“I went to Liverpool to stay there for years and be fully committed to the club and fulfil the contract that the club gave me. That was my motivation. That was what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to Liverpool. I wanted to be close to my family. I wanted to play in a different league, and I did not expect it to turn out the way it did in the end.
“I had no control over that. I had no control over how I was feeling as a person. It was just interesting to see all the comments, but I want people to know that I went there to give everything to the club. It was sad in the end that it didn’t work out, but I needed to leave, simple as that.”
O'Sullivan in action against WSL champions Manchester City. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
Personal reasons and difficulty settling in England were said to be behind O’Sullivan’s desire to move back to the US, and she confirms as much as she opens up.
“I don’t want to sound like I want pity from anyone with this article going out, I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, but I was just really unhappy off the pitch. I felt so unsettled. Maybe I underestimated a bit of how settled I was in the US with the team that I played for 10 years.
“I knew it was going to be hard. There was no doubt I knew it was going to be a challenge for me. But when I was there, it was something that I didn’t feel like would happen, how I was feeling off the pitch. It was just really, really challenging. I don’t even know how to explain it.”
Her voice cracks as she continues, sounding emotional on the other side of the phone. (O’Sullivan sent a follow-up text message afterwards, saying it was hard to get her words across to explain how she was feeling, but they flowed freely and made complete sense, despite her concerns.)
“It was just hard. I just couldn’t settle. I couldn’t make the impact that I wanted for the club on the pitch. I wasn’t good enough at Liverpool. I know that, and for me, I couldn’t have an impact on the pitch because I was feeling so down over there for the months that I was there.
“Football for me is everything. It’s my joy, I love playing the game. When I was on the pitch for Liverpool, it felt the opposite for me, and that wasn’t because of the club. It wasn’t because of any… the club was amazing. It was just how I was feeling. I didn’t get any joy out of playing. It was the complete opposite, actually. It felt like an anxiety on the field. I think when you’re feeling that down off the pitch, it really can translate onto the pitch.
Advertisement
“Obviously, the first few months you were kind of in almost a honeymoon phase in a new club. Everything’s new, there’s things that are different that are really good. Melwood (Liverpool’s training ground) was incredible. It was Premier League facilities, so that was honestly amazing. But how I was feeling off the pitch, I couldn’t go in there and enjoy it in the last few months. I couldn’t settle and I couldn’t make the impact that I wanted for the team.”
O'Sullivan after scoring in the FA Cup final. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
That said, O’Sullivan did help Gareth Taylor’s side secure WSL safety and reach the FA Cup semi-finals, where she scored in the Reds’ defeat to Brighton. In all, the Cork star made 13 appearances in both competitions and scored twice, with that MCL problem keeping her out for a period.
O’Sullivan tried to put on a brave face, but those around her knew how unhappy she was. Her fiancé James, who was flying over and back from America, could tell. Carla Ward and her staff saw through it in Ireland camps. And of course, her family back home in Knocknaheeny knew best. “You need to go back to the US,” they told her in time.
“I’m 32,” O’Sullivan says matter-of-factly. “I needed to be decisive in that moment. I’ve been a professional footballer now for as long as I know. I never had that feeling. I knew that I wouldn’t have been happy there. It was either stick there and not be happy and not be able to perform at the same time and have an effect on the national team and just my overall happiness. I needed to go in there and bite the bullet.”
And so she did. A month or six weeks before the season finished, O’Sullivan built up the courage to knock on the door of Liverpool managing director Andy O’Boyle and tell him how she was feeling. It was ‘stressful’ and ‘daunting’ but the Irishman couldn’t have dealt with it better.
“I’ll be forever grateful. He really put my wellbeing first. The first time we spoke, he said, ‘Give it a few weeks and see if you feel any different.’ And a few weeks went by, and I wasn’t getting any better. I had to go in there again, and just tell him how I was feeling again. He knew at that point that for me there was no staying. He tried, he wanted me to stay, but he was really, really amazing in how he dealt with it.
“I need to say that and personally shout him out because it’s kind of unusual when you just go to a club and you’re six months in, and you’ve signed a big contract for a few years that a club will really stand by the player and put their wellbeing first and let them go especially after paying a fee.” (Gotham are obliged to buy for reportedly €350,000 after the year-long loan)
Other difficult conversations were had with former Ireland teammate Niamh Fahey – Liverpool technical coordinator – and current assistant coach Amber Whiteley. “You think you’re letting them down as well, but they were amazing. They were supportive of me as a person, first and foremost.
Pictured with Niamh Fahey in 2024. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“It was hard at the time, but I’m really happy that I made the decision now and I stood by it and was strong in doing it.”
An NWSL return was always the plan, with no considerations made to stay in the WSL or go elsewhere in Europe. “No, I knew I’d be happy. I was always happy with the Courage, but I just felt like at the time I needed that new challenge. Once I was in Liverpool and England, I knew that it just wasn’t for me. My first thought was to get back to the NWSL.”
Liverpool began speaking to potential suitors, with several clubs in the mix, and as O’Sullivan returned to America for time off, she flew to New York to meet Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West.
“When I was having those conversations, I could just see how much they valued me. I didn’t have any doubt that I wouldn’t settle in here. Yael was phenomenal from the go. We chatted about the history of the club, the club’s ambitions. Obviously, they were doing really well already, and then making really big signings with Sam Kerr coming in, Guro Reiten, Rose Lavelle, a lot of world-class players. It’s a very high-performance culture and environment.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I was going to be challenged still. I feel like I still have a lot to give, and I still can become better, so I think that was the environment that I was going to be most challenged in. I want to win more trophies as well. That was in the back of my mind.”
From a relegation dogfight to defending champions and league leaders, O’Sullivan was back in what she considers to be “the best league in the world” – in her words, competitive from top to bottom; in ours, athletic and transitional compared to the combative, physical WSL.
Within a few weeks, she made her debut off the bench in a 3-2 win over Seattle Reign. “All gas, no breaks for quite a while,” she laughs, playing year-round without pre-seasons.
Greatest to ever play the game. What an honor to have him down to our game 🇮🇪 https://t.co/DzJvxp4IZ7
— Denise O'Sullivan (@OSullivanDenise) July 18, 2026
It was a bow to remember with a special guest watching on at Icahn Stadium. Roy Keane was in New York for the World Cup, and O’Sullivan’s agent Graham Barrett texted an invitation and ticket offer on her behalf.
“I was like, ‘He’s never going to come down, there’s no way,’” she recalls, picking up the story like a giddy child. “He got back right away and said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to come. Don’t worry about the tickets.’
“It was incredible. During the weather delay, he was upstairs in the lounge, I popped up and chatted with him, said hi. It was very special to have him there on my debut. He lived 10 minutes from me back in Cork. Growing up, he was someone I looked up to, someone I wanted to aspire to be like in my playing style. To have him here, it was pretty cool, to be honest! Really nice guy too.”
Injury has since taken hold, but O’Sullivan is “loving life” in her new surroundings.
James has moved full-time to be with her, and they live in an apartment a 25-minute drive from Gotham’s training ground, 15 minutes from the stadium, and a half-hour train journey from New York City. The couple bought a house in North Carolina last year, so it’s an hour-flight or 10-12 hour drive home.
“Being back here, it’s where I’m most happy in my life, and I think that’s more important than anything on the pitch. It’s been really nice to be settled and honestly just to be happy in myself and happy off the pitch.”
O’Sullivan is, however, back to clocking up the air miles for international duty, having spoken about its negative effects during her short stint on Merseyside. But lengthy travel is something she has done for so long, she points out.
“In Liverpool, that was a big plus, not being jet-lagged going into camp, but I’ve been in America for so long. I’m a real professional. I take care of my body. I’ll be fine for national team games. I think when you’re playing for your country, you kind of have that adrenaline anyway, so I should be good to go.”
'Playing for my country is the most important thing in the world, and I absolutely love doing it.' Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
And so, Ireland’s 2027 World Cup play-off semi-final against Kazakhstan swings into full view. While Uefa insist a Fifa boycott remains, the FAI continue to prepare for the trek to Central Asia and return to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, with the games fixed for 9 and 13 October respectively.
Ward’s side are red-hot favourites to progress to the final against Belgium or Poland, and are laser-focused on their bid to qualify for back-to-back World Cup finals.
“The team is very excited for those games,” says O’Sullivan. “We’re growing as a team and we’ve got some really good results, the Netherlands being one. But you’re going in to play a completely different team with different challenges, so we’re going to need to be at our best. Kazakhstan, it’s long travel as well. It’s going to be tough. It’s not going to be easy by any means, but I know the team is ready.”
O’Sullivan certainly is. She could indeed equal Emma Byrne’s appearance record of 132 on home soil in Cork. Fifteen years on from scoring two goals on her senior debut against Wales, she is on the precipice of overtaking her former teammate and now goalkeeping coach as Ireland’s record caps holder.
“It’s amazing to even think about having that many caps. I was only a 17-year-old, young, shy girl coming into this team, surrounded by Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant, Yvonne Tracey. At the time I was making my first cap, they all told me that I was going to go far, and now to be able to have that opportunity to equal with Emma Byrne, it’s pretty phenomenal, actually.
“Playing for my country is the most important thing in the world, and I absolutely love doing it. Fingers crossed, nothing gets in the way, but it’s going to be a really proud moment for my family and I. It’s really special that it’s going to be in Cork as well, for all of them to be there to witness that.”
A challenging 2026 for Denise O’Sullivan could turn out pretty nicely, after all.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
Denise O'Sullivan's Liverpool exit: 'I couldn't have an impact on the pitch because I was feeling so down'
DENISE O’SULLIVAN IS happily settled back in the US after less than six months at Liverpool. Now a Gotham FC player, there is lots to cover as she takes The 42‘s call.
“Apart from the injury, life’s really good,” the Ireland centurion begins from her new base, near New York.
The injury is a knee setback which has sidelined her for five weeks. It was a freak incident in training; the opposite knee to the one that has been dogged by MCL issues of late.
But O’Sullivan is back in team sessions this week and looking to “get in a rhythm again” after a disruptive few seasons. Off the pitch, as well as on it, of late.
In January, the 32-year-old midfielder left North Carolina Courage and swapped the NWSL, where she had spent over a decade, for the WSL. She joined relegation-threatened Liverpool on a permanent deal, for a reported club-record fee in the region of €350,000.
Five months and 28 days later, confirmation arrived that O’Sullivan had signed for NWSL champions Gotham on an initial one-year loan with an obligation for a permanent transfer.
A vacuum followed, which was soon filled with speculation. O’Sullivan is now ready to address it.
“When it got announced that I was leaving, I obviously got a bit of stick on social media, which is normal. People were saying, ‘Why did she come for six months? She’s wasting people’s time.’
“I went to Liverpool to stay there for years and be fully committed to the club and fulfil the contract that the club gave me. That was my motivation. That was what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to Liverpool. I wanted to be close to my family. I wanted to play in a different league, and I did not expect it to turn out the way it did in the end.
“I had no control over that. I had no control over how I was feeling as a person. It was just interesting to see all the comments, but I want people to know that I went there to give everything to the club. It was sad in the end that it didn’t work out, but I needed to leave, simple as that.”
Personal reasons and difficulty settling in England were said to be behind O’Sullivan’s desire to move back to the US, and she confirms as much as she opens up.
“I don’t want to sound like I want pity from anyone with this article going out, I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me, but I was just really unhappy off the pitch. I felt so unsettled. Maybe I underestimated a bit of how settled I was in the US with the team that I played for 10 years.
“I knew it was going to be hard. There was no doubt I knew it was going to be a challenge for me. But when I was there, it was something that I didn’t feel like would happen, how I was feeling off the pitch. It was just really, really challenging. I don’t even know how to explain it.”
Her voice cracks as she continues, sounding emotional on the other side of the phone. (O’Sullivan sent a follow-up text message afterwards, saying it was hard to get her words across to explain how she was feeling, but they flowed freely and made complete sense, despite her concerns.)
“It was just hard. I just couldn’t settle. I couldn’t make the impact that I wanted for the club on the pitch. I wasn’t good enough at Liverpool. I know that, and for me, I couldn’t have an impact on the pitch because I was feeling so down over there for the months that I was there.
“Football for me is everything. It’s my joy, I love playing the game. When I was on the pitch for Liverpool, it felt the opposite for me, and that wasn’t because of the club. It wasn’t because of any… the club was amazing. It was just how I was feeling. I didn’t get any joy out of playing. It was the complete opposite, actually. It felt like an anxiety on the field. I think when you’re feeling that down off the pitch, it really can translate onto the pitch.
“Obviously, the first few months you were kind of in almost a honeymoon phase in a new club. Everything’s new, there’s things that are different that are really good. Melwood (Liverpool’s training ground) was incredible. It was Premier League facilities, so that was honestly amazing. But how I was feeling off the pitch, I couldn’t go in there and enjoy it in the last few months. I couldn’t settle and I couldn’t make the impact that I wanted for the team.”
That said, O’Sullivan did help Gareth Taylor’s side secure WSL safety and reach the FA Cup semi-finals, where she scored in the Reds’ defeat to Brighton. In all, the Cork star made 13 appearances in both competitions and scored twice, with that MCL problem keeping her out for a period.
O’Sullivan tried to put on a brave face, but those around her knew how unhappy she was. Her fiancé James, who was flying over and back from America, could tell. Carla Ward and her staff saw through it in Ireland camps. And of course, her family back home in Knocknaheeny knew best. “You need to go back to the US,” they told her in time.
“I’m 32,” O’Sullivan says matter-of-factly. “I needed to be decisive in that moment. I’ve been a professional footballer now for as long as I know. I never had that feeling. I knew that I wouldn’t have been happy there. It was either stick there and not be happy and not be able to perform at the same time and have an effect on the national team and just my overall happiness. I needed to go in there and bite the bullet.”
And so she did. A month or six weeks before the season finished, O’Sullivan built up the courage to knock on the door of Liverpool managing director Andy O’Boyle and tell him how she was feeling. It was ‘stressful’ and ‘daunting’ but the Irishman couldn’t have dealt with it better.
“I’ll be forever grateful. He really put my wellbeing first. The first time we spoke, he said, ‘Give it a few weeks and see if you feel any different.’ And a few weeks went by, and I wasn’t getting any better. I had to go in there again, and just tell him how I was feeling again. He knew at that point that for me there was no staying. He tried, he wanted me to stay, but he was really, really amazing in how he dealt with it.
“I need to say that and personally shout him out because it’s kind of unusual when you just go to a club and you’re six months in, and you’ve signed a big contract for a few years that a club will really stand by the player and put their wellbeing first and let them go especially after paying a fee.” (Gotham are obliged to buy for reportedly €350,000 after the year-long loan)
Other difficult conversations were had with former Ireland teammate Niamh Fahey – Liverpool technical coordinator – and current assistant coach Amber Whiteley. “You think you’re letting them down as well, but they were amazing. They were supportive of me as a person, first and foremost.
“It was hard at the time, but I’m really happy that I made the decision now and I stood by it and was strong in doing it.”
An NWSL return was always the plan, with no considerations made to stay in the WSL or go elsewhere in Europe. “No, I knew I’d be happy. I was always happy with the Courage, but I just felt like at the time I needed that new challenge. Once I was in Liverpool and England, I knew that it just wasn’t for me. My first thought was to get back to the NWSL.”
Liverpool began speaking to potential suitors, with several clubs in the mix, and as O’Sullivan returned to America for time off, she flew to New York to meet Gotham FC general manager Yael Averbuch West.
“When I was having those conversations, I could just see how much they valued me. I didn’t have any doubt that I wouldn’t settle in here. Yael was phenomenal from the go. We chatted about the history of the club, the club’s ambitions. Obviously, they were doing really well already, and then making really big signings with Sam Kerr coming in, Guro Reiten, Rose Lavelle, a lot of world-class players. It’s a very high-performance culture and environment.
“I wanted to go somewhere where I was going to be challenged still. I feel like I still have a lot to give, and I still can become better, so I think that was the environment that I was going to be most challenged in. I want to win more trophies as well. That was in the back of my mind.”
From a relegation dogfight to defending champions and league leaders, O’Sullivan was back in what she considers to be “the best league in the world” – in her words, competitive from top to bottom; in ours, athletic and transitional compared to the combative, physical WSL.
Within a few weeks, she made her debut off the bench in a 3-2 win over Seattle Reign. “All gas, no breaks for quite a while,” she laughs, playing year-round without pre-seasons.
It was a bow to remember with a special guest watching on at Icahn Stadium. Roy Keane was in New York for the World Cup, and O’Sullivan’s agent Graham Barrett texted an invitation and ticket offer on her behalf.
“I was like, ‘He’s never going to come down, there’s no way,’” she recalls, picking up the story like a giddy child. “He got back right away and said, ‘Yeah, I’d love to come. Don’t worry about the tickets.’
“It was incredible. During the weather delay, he was upstairs in the lounge, I popped up and chatted with him, said hi. It was very special to have him there on my debut. He lived 10 minutes from me back in Cork. Growing up, he was someone I looked up to, someone I wanted to aspire to be like in my playing style. To have him here, it was pretty cool, to be honest! Really nice guy too.”
Injury has since taken hold, but O’Sullivan is “loving life” in her new surroundings.
James has moved full-time to be with her, and they live in an apartment a 25-minute drive from Gotham’s training ground, 15 minutes from the stadium, and a half-hour train journey from New York City. The couple bought a house in North Carolina last year, so it’s an hour-flight or 10-12 hour drive home.
“Being back here, it’s where I’m most happy in my life, and I think that’s more important than anything on the pitch. It’s been really nice to be settled and honestly just to be happy in myself and happy off the pitch.”
O’Sullivan is, however, back to clocking up the air miles for international duty, having spoken about its negative effects during her short stint on Merseyside. But lengthy travel is something she has done for so long, she points out.
“In Liverpool, that was a big plus, not being jet-lagged going into camp, but I’ve been in America for so long. I’m a real professional. I take care of my body. I’ll be fine for national team games. I think when you’re playing for your country, you kind of have that adrenaline anyway, so I should be good to go.”
And so, Ireland’s 2027 World Cup play-off semi-final against Kazakhstan swings into full view. While Uefa insist a Fifa boycott remains, the FAI continue to prepare for the trek to Central Asia and return to SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, with the games fixed for 9 and 13 October respectively.
Ward’s side are red-hot favourites to progress to the final against Belgium or Poland, and are laser-focused on their bid to qualify for back-to-back World Cup finals.
“The team is very excited for those games,” says O’Sullivan. “We’re growing as a team and we’ve got some really good results, the Netherlands being one. But you’re going in to play a completely different team with different challenges, so we’re going to need to be at our best. Kazakhstan, it’s long travel as well. It’s going to be tough. It’s not going to be easy by any means, but I know the team is ready.”
O’Sullivan certainly is. She could indeed equal Emma Byrne’s appearance record of 132 on home soil in Cork. Fifteen years on from scoring two goals on her senior debut against Wales, she is on the precipice of overtaking her former teammate and now goalkeeping coach as Ireland’s record caps holder.
“It’s amazing to even think about having that many caps. I was only a 17-year-old, young, shy girl coming into this team, surrounded by Emma Byrne, Ciara Grant, Yvonne Tracey. At the time I was making my first cap, they all told me that I was going to go far, and now to be able to have that opportunity to equal with Emma Byrne, it’s pretty phenomenal, actually.
“Playing for my country is the most important thing in the world, and I absolutely love doing it. Fingers crossed, nothing gets in the way, but it’s going to be a really proud moment for my family and I. It’s really special that it’s going to be in Cork as well, for all of them to be there to witness that.”
A challenging 2026 for Denise O’Sullivan could turn out pretty nicely, after all.
*****
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Denise O'Sullivan Exclusive Football Interview Soccer