Spurs defender Molly Bartrip reflects on battles with her mental health and building a supportive dressing room
Upfront - A Women's Football Podcast
Stak Production
4.8 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Content warning: this interview features discussion of topics that some listeners may find triggering and distressing.
Ahead of World Mental Health Day tomorrow, Rachel is joined by Spurs defender and vice-captain Molly Bartrip.
Molly has been one of the most prominent voices in the WSL on mental health. After own battles with anorexia nervosa, depression and anxiety, she has spoken frankly about her health and has strived to support her teammates.
Molly sat down with Rachel to reflect on her journey, the growing pressure on players and staff in the WSL, and how she looks after her own mind and body today.
You can find Molly's 2022 piece in The Players' Tribune here.
If you’ve been affected by anything you’ve heard on today’s episode or would like some advice, please visit mind.org.uk.
Molly has also recommended visiting Common Goal, where you can find more stories and advice from figures across football – and for players, the PFA's website and their 24/7 helpline are brilliant resources, too.
Upfront is your definitive women's football podcast, covering the WSL, the Lionesses, and beyond. Subscribe for new podcasts every Tuesday throughout the season.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Content warning. This interview features discussions of topics that some listeners may find triggering and distressing. |
| 0:10.5 | Welcome to Upfront. I'm Rachel O'Sullivan. Today we're joined by Tottenham Defender and Vice Captain Molly Bartrip. |
| 0:17.7 | In 2021, Molly rejoined Spurs, her childhood club. Once upon a time, she had even captained |
| 0:23.3 | the under 10s team. Later, she went through the youth system at Arsenal, where she represented |
| 0:27.4 | England at youth level for the very first time. However, the day before her first game for her |
| 0:32.1 | country, Molly suffered an injury which caused her to become isolated, and eventually to develop |
| 0:36.9 | anorexia nervosa. |
| 0:38.7 | This was the beginning of her battle with mental illness, a battle she has since written and |
| 0:42.8 | spoken about frankly and powerfully. It's a pleasure and an honour to have Molly joining us on |
| 0:47.5 | this special episode of Up Front which we're releasing to mark World Mental Health Day this |
| 0:51.8 | Friday, October 10th. We will be speaking to Molly about her experiences, her journey in football, and how we as a |
| 0:57.8 | community can continue to improve our understanding of these issues inside and outside of the |
| 1:02.2 | game we all love. |
| 1:07.7 | Welcome to the pod, Molly. |
| 1:09.4 | Thank you so much for joining us. First things first, how are you doing? I was so glad to read that you were back in training following your injury. Yeah, I'm doing well. As you said, yeah, I'm back in training, trained fully today, which was nice to be backing me with the girls. And obviously, we've had quite a good season so far so I'm just hoping I can help |
| 1:28.0 | the team and bring a bit more experience to the group as well but yeah I'm a really nice group to |
| 1:32.7 | be around so I'm just happy to be on the pitch because rehab is tough it's really tough and |
| 1:37.0 | it's been a long time since I've been injured if I'm honest so it's tested me in many ways and yeah I've |
| 1:44.1 | really enjoyed watching the girls but now I just want to be involved. Yeah, I bet you do. And I think coming in, what, third in the table? Coming back to that's not too bad, is it? I bet the vibe in camp is great, is it? Yeah, it's good. You know, we still know that there's a lot more for us to do as a group. and, you know, obviously big game at the weekend. That's a big test for us, and we want to prove ourselves. |
| 2:03.7 | But it's |
| 2:04.3 | really important to get the first few results under our belt and yeah, we've done that really well. |
| 2:09.4 | Now, World Mental Health Day is this Friday and we want to speak with you, Molly, because |
... |
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