EXCLUSIVE: Sophie Hillyerd on loan move to Watford, two years of injury hell, and London City Lionesses changing the game | OneFootball

Sophie Hillyerd (Nina Farooqi)

It’s been a long time coming, but Sophie Hillyerd is back on a pitch and loving her football.

The 22-year-old goalkeeper has just joined Watford on loan from London City Lionesses for the rest of the season, and marked her arrival with a clean sheet in a 4-0 win over AFC Wimbledon – a victory that took the Golden Girls to the top of the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier.

It’s a club where she played a couple of matches in October 2025 on an emergency loan, so she knew that reuniting with Renee Hector’s team would be a good fit.

“It’s a good opportunity for me at the stage of my career that I’m at,” she tells SheKicks.net. “I’ve been injured for a long time, so it’s a good opportunity to go into a club that play good football and are ambitious for next season – definitely a good fit for me at the moment.”

She missed two entire seasons through injury – so getting some regular minutes is crucial for her now as she looks to establish herself as a first-choice keeper.

“Since I’ve become a professional footballer, I’ve never really had that consistent game time,” she admits. “I was at West Ham and I played three games for them, which was amazing and I couldn’t have asked for anything more, and then I came to London City and got injured.

“Throughout those two years, London City became something that nobody expected them to become, so for me to go to Watford was the right move. To play and be on that team, it does make me happy.”

Sophie Hillyerd: Michele Kang has done amazing things for London City Lionesses

Hillyerd made her West Ham debut in October 2022 in a 3-1 loss against Arsenal. She then joined London City Lionesses the following July; with all the recruitment and investment the club has seen since then, she is the longest-serving senior player still on the books.

“I went into the club when it was at a place where it was not where it was now! I thought I could go in there and get minutes, which is why I left West Ham to go there.

“To see the changes, it’s been great because women’s football is on the rise and Michele Kang has done amazing things for women’s football and us.”

She adds that it was “hard” to not be a real part of the promotion celebrations last year as the club won what was then the Championship to reach the WSL. At that point, she was in the final stages of her recovery from a knee injury and repeated surgeries that kept her out for two years.

West Ham V Arsenal, Dagenham and Redbridge’s Chigwell Construction Stadium.

Goalkeeper Sophie Hillyerd (28 West Ham) warm-up during the Barclays FA Womens Super League game between West Ham United v Arsenal at Dagenham and Redbridge’s Chigwell Construction Stadium.England. (K Hodgson/SPP)

Initially, the problem – incurred in a friendly against her old side West Ham – was thought to be minor as she reported some pain when she drove home after the game. But when it did not respond to management as a muscle injury, she had to go down the surgical route. First, the surgeons repaired a complex meniscus tear, but it did not remove the pain.

“So then they did something else, which was supposed to be a clean out,” she explains, “but my knee was in such a bad state that they did something called micro-fracturing, which is where they drill holes in the bone to re-stimulate cartilage growth.

“But that’s a long recovery, 12 months, and I didn’t know that, so waking up to that was a bit of a shock.

“And then nine months after that, I was like,’It still hurts – it shouldn’t still hurt after nine months.'”

“My whole life has been football”

Hillyerd then saw a different surgeon, who suggested another procedure to explore the knee and remove the plica, a piece of tissue that some people have that wraps around the knee.

“He took it out and I had an injection after that and I’ve been okay since,” she concludes, adding that her friend Kiera Skeels, the Charlton Athletic captain, was incredibly helpful and supportive during this time.

In Hillyerd’s social media videos, she has said that before the third operation, she felt it was “all or nothing” – and she even found herself considering what she would do if she had to retire from football at the age of 21.

“My whole life has been football, and for it to maybe come crashing down, I had to definitely think about what’s next. The women’s game isn’t as financially stable as the men’s game, so it was definitely a strong thought in my mind.” 

She signed her first professional contract as an 18-year-old instead of going to university, so mulled over the option of studying for a degree – or perhaps setting up a doggy daycare.

Fortunately, it’s something she now doesn’t need to think about just yet.

And she can focus on helping Watford win promotion back to the second tier.

 “The trust that [head coach Renee Hector] and the other coaching staff at Watford show in me is great,” she says. “To walk in and start, I’m very grateful for them trusting me with that, and hopefully I repay that with good performances.”