Rylee Foster

#1 RYLEE FOSTER – dob 13/8/98

The Wellington Phoenix have given Rylee Foster the chance to return to professional football, two years on from an horrific car accident that halted her promising career.

The Canadian goalkeeper has signed with the Phoenix for the 2023-24 Liberty A-League season, after saying an emotional goodbye to Liverpool FC in June.

Foster was told she would never play again after she was thrown from a car in Finland in October 2021. She suffered a range of serious injuries, the most significant of which were seven fractures in her neck, and was placed into an immobilising ‘halo’ upon her return to Liverpool to prevent sudden movement that could have resulted in catastrophic damage.

“The fact that I’m alive is phenomenal,” Foster said. “The injury that I sustained is known to kill you instantly, if not become a tetraplegic, which is what Christopher Reeve was.”

“Joining the Phoenix is very symbolic. It’s a new becoming. It’s an arising from something that was literally in ashes.

“I’ve been through a lot in the last two years, more than most people go through in their whole lives. There have been a lot of sacrifices and blood, sweat and tears to get to this point, and a lot of hurdles in regard to physical and mental health.

“I’m so happy that you’ll not only get to see me as a footballer here, but the new and improved side of myself with all the lessons that I’ve learned over the last two years and the adversity I’ve faced.

“This new version of myself could potentially be the best of the best and that’s what I’m excited about.”

Rylee Foster was born and raised in Ontario, Canada before attending West Virginia University in the U.S.A. from 2016 to 2019. She played 84 matches for the Mountaineers, recording 39 clean sheets.

Foster has represented Canada at U-17 and U-20 level and was called up to the senior squad in 2021.

She joined Liverpool in January 2020 after her final year at college and made five appearances for the Reds. She starred in a cup match for Liverpool days before the horror car accident in Finland.

> 2022-23 season

Rylee Foster didn’t feature for Liverpool in the 2022-23 FA Women’s Super League as she continued her rehab.

Foster returned to training with the Reds in February and in May they announced she would be leaving the club at the end of the season.

She trialled with other clubs in the U.K. before getting the call from the Wellington Phoenix in September.