ellie noble

I was also a keen cricketer when I was younger. If you speak to my Dad – he loves football, but he loves cricket even more – he would rather I chose cricket over football! He wanted me to play for England. I played up to regional level, and went to a couple of camps, kind of like the England reserves.

I bowled seam and batted left-handed. I remember scoring a century against the Netherlands – 136 in fact, my highest score –playing for Oxfordshire. I don’t know what would have happened if I had kept playing, but I chose football.

My Dad was a Reading fan when I grew up, and so I spent a lot of time at the Madjeski with my family. When I was older, I had the chance to play there. I was at Lewes, and we played Reading in the Conti Cup. We went one goal down, and I scored the second as we came back to 2-1.

In the second-half, Fara Williams – who was England’s most capped player – scored a hattrick and we went out. Despite the score, it was a great day out. That is probably my favourite football memory, because I had been there as a child and my Dad got to see me score there. That was special.

I play in central midfield for Palace. I’m a box-to-box player, playing in the No. 8 role but I can fill in anywhere in the centre really. I enjoy getting on the ball to begin the build-up, but I enjoy finishing it off as well. Most of the goals I score tend to be from outside the box.

Surprisingly, given how many new players we have got – we had 15 new signings at the start of the season – we have settled in quite quickly. On the pitch it has taken some time to gel. Socially we get on so well, but of course it takes time to have that same bond on the pitch.

We are disappointed with some results at the moment, but you can see glimpses of what we can produce. We really think we can push on in the league. We are working on something that can be really special, but it takes time to work that out on the pitch, especially in training. Things are heading in the right direction, even if results don’t reflect that.

For me personally this season, I was keen to get minutes and cement my place in the team, but last week I tore my ACL and now my objectives have to change. Even while I am out I want to help the team.

Everything we are doing is quite new and there are so many new personnel, so actually helping the team with the analysis side is a target for me now. It means helping to improve the team off the pitch, even if, unfortunately, I can’t help them on the pitch for now.

The girls have been great –they are such a good bunch. They love a laugh and a joke. When you are training, if you are having a bad day, someone will be there to make you laugh.

Here at Palace we are incredibly lucky in the women’s game: there lots of people that will fix me and the facilities we have got here mean I have no worries whatsoever about returning from injury. The goal is to make a silver lining: there are lots of things I want to be better at in 12 months’ time.

Setting those goals, be they psychological or physical, or on the pitch like technical and tactical, they are things I can work on now. There are lots of people here, coaches and psychologists, who can put things in place. Even though it is still really hard, there are things I can do that can give me a sense of purpose, so I can come back better and stronger for support on starting your wellbeing journey and to find out more on how Vitality rewards its members for being active.

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