FOORD Caitlin

General
COMEBACK FROM INJURY
She says she experienced doubts about continuing her football career after fracturing bones in her right foot in February 2018. "Having [had] that injury before on my other foot, it was really challenging to have those thoughts coming into my mind. I was thinking it was going to be impossible for me [to play again]. I watched a lot of footage of myself playing just to remind myself, 'You can actually play football'." After returning to the pitch for US team Portland Thorns, she says was able to regain her form during a spell at Sydney FC during the 2018/19 W-League in Australia. "I used it as a fresh start and did everything in my power to make myself better. I was lacking ability in front of goal, so I started doing extra shooting sessions away from the team, which really helped me. [With] Portland, when I should have been taking shots, I was passing it because I was too afraid to make a mistake. So it was getting that ruthlessness back into my play. I got off to a really good start [scoring two goals in her first game for the club], so I was just building off that each game. I honestly just started enjoying playing the game again and stopped over-thinking it." (thewomensgame.com, 15 Feb 2019)

CLUB JOURNEY
She started her professional career at Sydney FC in the 2010/11 Australian W-League season. She moved to the National Women's Soccer League [NWSL] in the United States of America in 2013, joining Sky Blue FC. While at Sky Blue FC, she returned to the W-League on loan during the NWSL off-season, representing Perth Glory in the 2014 and 2015/16 W-League seasons. She left Sky Blue FC and re-joined Sydney FC for the 2016/17 W-League season, and in 2017 played one season with the Vegalta Sendai Ladies in Japan's Women's Football League. In 2018, while still under contract at Sydney FC, she joined her second NWSL club when she was acquired by the Portland Thorns. She played two NWSL seasons at the Thorns before her NWSL rights were traded to the Orlando Pride in January 2020. She also left Sydney FC in January 2020 to join English Women's Super League [WSL] side Arsenal. (sydneyfc.com, 15 Dec 2017; timbers.com, 11 Jan 2018; orlandocitysc.com, 08 Jan 2020; sydneyfc.com, 24 Jan 2020)

NON-FOOTBALL FAMILY
Despite pursuing a career in the sport, she says her family were not interested in football growing up and that she herself prefers to watch rugby league over football. "I never watched football growing up. It was never in my family, it's only recently I've started watching games at all [speaking in 2019]. I didn't have a role model in football either, I just played it because I enjoyed it. Today, I won't go out of my way to watch football. It's never been a thing that I love, I don't love watching it, but I do love playing it. In ways I find football boring. I don't know the players or have much interest in watching. I find it more fun watching people I care about do well. I know them on a personal level, so I see their personality on the field. That's more enjoyable for me, but I grew up watching NRL [Australia's National Rugby League], so I'll watch NRL over soccer." (thewomensgame.com, 13 Oct 2019)