Millie Turner at 150 United Women appearances: How she overcame setbacks to reach career milestone
United Women's No.21 played her 150th game for the club during Sunday's 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the WSL. It's been a long road to get here.
Image: Jamie Spencer
When Millie Turner was 14, she was one of the brightest talents in England. But a young Turner suddenly found herself looking for a new club when the highly regarded Crewe Alexandra Girls Centre of Excellence closed after its license was withdrawn by the FA.
Turner had previously spent time with Stockport County from the age of 10, followed by Manchester City – albeit still a grassroots side compared to the elite academy that is now established. She linked up with Crewe but also travelled to the United States, before Crewe’s controversial folding prompted invitations of trials with Liverpool, then on their way to becoming double WSL champions, Everton, one of the more historic women’s football clubs in England, and Manchester United, who operated no senior side but ran a sound girls’ operation.
“I got offers from all three. But I had to decide and I thought United’s facilities were really good, I knew some of the coaches there and I knew they had a good team,” Turner, by then 16, told the Macclesfield Express in 2013.
Turner was a midfielder in those days and had already represented England at Under-19 level, which is what had brought her to the attention of the local east Cheshire press – she lived and attended school in nearby Wilmslow, the town Sir Alex Ferguson long called home until last year. She counted Katie Zelem and Gabby George among her United teammates in those days and her age group won the North West Regional League in her first season with the club.
But with no first-team to progress to, Turner was soon on the move again, joining Everton in 2013 not long after her 17th birthday. Within a few months, she was added to the senior squad and, still yet to turn 18, started for the Toffees in the 2014 FA Cup final in front of 15,000 people at Stadium MK in Milton Keynes. It was the last final before the permanent move to Wembley.
After Everton’s relegation from the top flight in 2014, having also been beaten by Arsenal in the aforementioned final, the Toffees spent 2015 and 2016 in WSL 2 (now the Women’s Championship), twice narrowly missing out on promotion. But a developing Turner got her chance to return to the top flight when Bristol City made her an offer ahead of the 2017 Spring Series, the short competition intended to bridge the gap as the WSL transitioned from a summer league into the more conventional autumn/winter/spring calendar.
Turner impressed in a struggling side and was named captain ahead of 2017/18, having only just celebrated her 21st birthday. When interviewed by club media following the announcement, the youngster opened a window into the character that has served to make her one of the most widely-liked WSL players around today. “I always try and be a nice person on and off the pitch. Ultimately, if it’s a happy environment, that will work on to the pitch as well.”
Bristol finished the season above former club Everton and comfortably clear of the bottom of the WSL table. But Turner was invited back ‘home’ that summer following the decision from Manchester United to reform a women’s first-team squad 13 years after folding the previous iteration.
Katie Zelem spoke in 2023 about it being a gamble for her to accept United’s offer. She had just won Serie A with Juventus and was heading for the Champions League. There were similar situations for many others, with Alex Greenwood, Siobhan Chamberlain, Amy Turner and Martha Harris all established WSL players who gave up top flight football to buy into Casey Stoney’s project.
Millie was no different, while she had the added pull of being a product of the academy, as were fellow 2018 recruits Ella Toone, Kirsty Hanson, Emily Ramsey, Fran Bentley and Naomi Hartley.
Turner started United’s first official game in the centre of defence alongside namesake, Amy, a League Cup tie against top flight Liverpool at Prenton Park. “I remember I was just so nervous, because we just didn’t really know what to expect,” she told United’s matchday programme this past weekend as she look back on that momentous occasion over six years later.
“It will live with me forever,” she added, with United claiming victory courtesy of Lizzie Arnot.
Turner was a mainstay as the Red Devils cruised to the Championship title, the only player in the whole squad to start all 20 league games over the course of the campaign. She remained instrumental in the WSL when United were immediately grabbing at the coat tails of the league’s three established giants, starting all 14 games before the season was forcibly abandoned.
The player spent the Covid-19 lockdown in mid-2020 with Ella Toone, posting comical skits on social media in an attempt to keep the pair of them entertained but also serve as at least a little bit of relief for others. “In times like these, we need to be creative around how we take care of each other and ourselves to keep our minds and bodies healthy. Let’s do that together,” read the caption attached to one such post, which featured a video of them transforming a kitchen mop into a Harry Potter-esque broomstick, and another with a choreographed routine set to the Addams family theme tune.
Through social media, fans have been given an insight into Turner’s charm, with colleagues knowing all too well the dangers of not checking around corners in case she waiting to jump out at them. It all ties back into how she is as a person, always seeking to keep morale high.
On the pitch, Turner continued to thrive as United started the 2020/21 WSL campaign in blistering fashion, winning eight of the first 10 games to sit top at the winter break. Her 50th United game - the first to reach that mark - came in the season opener against Chelsea, and that month she also received her first senior England call-up to a training camp in which no matches were played. Another call-up came in February of 2021 as an injury replacement for Millie Bright.
But then came a season which might have been enough to break lesser individuals. A knee injury saw Turner miss most of the first half of 2021/22. She had dislocated a kneecap once before as a 16-year-old and it happened again during a collision in the early stages of a WSL win over Leicester. She was visibly distressed and was given oxygen on the pitch while being fitted with a large brace and stretchered off during a lengthy stoppage in play. But, having returned to action three months later and starting successive league wins over Brighton, Aston Villa and Birmingham in which United scored 12 goals and conceded none, even worse news was soon delivered.
Cruelly, the same day that Turner was featured on the cover of United’s matchday programme for a clash with Tottenham at Leigh Sports Village, in which the player gave a five-page interview discussing her recent return to the side and new-found partnership with Aoife Mannion, she was unexpectedly absent from the squad. It was quickly confirmed by the club that Turner was ruled out for an “indefinite period” after medical tests had discovered an issue with an artery in her neck.
It was later confirmed to be a rare carotid artery dissection, which meant an artery between her heart and brain was torn. Turner initially flagged the problem to the team doctor because she could hear her heart beating in her ear. Symptoms became worse and her speech even started to slur. After tests revealed what was wrong, with the risk of a potentially fatal stroke, Millie was forced to immediately stop all physical activities. At that point, she didn’t know if she would ever play football again.
“It’s too dangerous to try and go in and fix it [with surgery] because of where it is in the body and how much of a vital artery it is, so you have to be really careful and try and leave it alone, rest and let it heal itself,” Turner explained to the Telegraph several months later, looking back.
With patience, Turner resumed light training in July of 2023 and was in full training in August, seven months after the diagnosis. By February, mere weeks after, she was described as Marc Skinner as being “way past the worst” and continued to be part of the squad and travel to games, before being granted a period of extended leave shortly before the end of the season to go on holiday.
On the eve of the 2022/23 WSL season as she prepared to make her return to competitive action, Turner reflected: “I feel like I’m the kind of person who tries to look on the bright side of life, always.”
And, having been so close to everything she had worked for her whole life being taken away, she added: “I’ve got a new lease of life. I think it just puts everything into perspective and now I feel like I’m on top of the world…just buzzing to get back on the pitch.”
It seemed little coincidence, then, that the campaign was arguably her very best.
Turner had formed centre-back partnerships with Amy Turner, Abbie McManus and was starting to strike one up with Aoife Mannion prior to her enforced absence. But the start of 2022/23 brought a brand new partner in summer signing Maya Le Tissier. It was Le Tissier who took the headlines on day one with a surprise brace inside the opening 25 minutes against Reading, but United kept a clean sheet and Turner completed the full 90 minutes in her first game in eight months. That initial shutout turned into five on the bounce, with goalkeeper Mary Earps in world class form behind and the Le Tissier-Turner partnership flanked by excellent full-backs Ona Batlle and Hannah Blundell.
Even though defending is what has always made her so important to United, Turner scored one of the most famous goals in the team’s short history in November 2022, coming at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal were on course for a 15th consecutive league win until Turner’s thumping head off the crossbar five minutes before the end laid the foundation for Alessia Russo to subsequently go and win it. That was United’s first away league victory against one of the WSL’s big three.
Turner didn’t miss a single minute in the league until late March when she was withdrawn shortly before the end of a 4-0 win over West Ham at Old Trafford. In the preceding weeks she’d made her landmark 100th United appearance in a Leigh Sports Village win against Tottenham. A minor injury kept her out of the starting lineup of United’s home win over Arsenal in April, with Mannion starring on her own heroic night and keeping that place for the subsequent trip to Aston Villa. But with United staring down the barrel of a disappointing draw in the west midlands, Turner came off the bench and scored another dramatically late header to claim the win and keep the WSL title race well and truly alive. “Zel put a great delivery in and…got it on me noggin,” she delightedly told MUTV.
Despite finishing the WSL season with seven straight wins, United fell agonisingly short of the title on the final day, paying the price for the finest of margins after a controversial 1-0 defeat to Chelsea in March and a home stalemate against Everton in February. Chelsea also emerged victorious, similarly narrowly, in the FA Cup final at Wembley too. But it was a historic season nonetheless, with new league records for fewest goals conceded (12) in a 22-game season and most clean sheets (14).
The 2023/24 season was much more of a challenge and United struggled to build on a huge year. Turner and Le Tissier partnered each other from the start in every WSL game, while Millie was finally recalled to the England squad after a three-year absence from the international scene. Having caught the eye of Sarina Wiegman, she attended successive camps in November and February, at last making her senior Lionesses debut in the latter as a substitute against Italy. It was her first time in an England shirt of any kind since a single Under-23 appearance in 2018.
The FA Cup was United’s silver lining to an otherwise tough season. Turner was at her very best when Chelsea arrived at Leigh Sports Village for the semi-final, which required a huge defensive effort from the whole team after going 2-0 ahead in the first half. Turner’s role became a major part of the post-match narrative when, having scuffled with ex-teammate Lauren James in the wake of the Chelsea forward pulling a goal back, she later posted on Instagram an image of the moment James had her in a something akin to a headlock. She was making light of the situation and finding the humour like she always does, captioning it, “See you at Wembley my reds”. James was despicably subjected to racist abuse in the aftermath, sadly not for the first time in her career, but Turner was accused by some of providing the ammunition for it. It was unfair that she was held responsible for the deplorable behaviour of others. Turner, who hadn’t acted in bad faith, then became the separate victim of a dogpile.
On the pitch, United secured the FA Cup at Wembley to end a five-year quest for a major trophy following 2018/19’s Women’s Championship success. Katie Zelem lifted the cup, with Turner, Ella Toone, Gabby George, and emerging talents like Jess Simpson, Safia Middleton-Patel, Keira Barry all present in or with the squad as home-grown players representing one of the club’s core values. Meanwhile, Turner, Toone, Zelem and Leah Galton were the last remaining 2018 ‘originals’.
Despite a summer of change, 2024/25 season has started with optimism as United aim to recapture what took them so close to a domestic double two years ago. Turner remains a huge part of that, now reaching 150 games for the club, marking the milestone with a player of the match performance against Arsenal in front of a record LSV crowd. In the coming months, she will surpass former teammate Zelem (161) on the list to further cement herself a Manchester United legend.
The contract Turner, now 28, signed in 2023 has just over seven months left to run. But she is part of the squad leadership group and fans everywhere will hope there is still much more to come.