England and Barcelona goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck has said she was at risk of losing her vision after having a stroke in 2024.
In February last year, Roebuck revealed that she had suffered a left occipital infarct, which is caused by the clogging of an artery in a brain.
The 25-year-old returned to action in December against Real Betis after nearly a year away from the sport, a period during which she feared she might never play again.
"I'm lucky because I should have lost my vision," she said in an interview with BBC Sport.
"I should have lost my peripheral vision for sure. The majority of people that suffer a stroke [like mine] do that. So, I probably should have been blind, which is quite a miracle that that didn't happen."
Roebuck revealed that she first began experiencing dizziness, fatigue, balance issues and impaired vision in December 2023, when she was at Manchester City. Her issues were put down to concussion as she had been struck in the head by a ball in training. But, a head scan revealed a more dire diagnosis.
"It filled me with panic, but I never had in my mind that it was a stroke," she said of the call she received.
"He sat me down and was like, 'you've had an infarct in your left occipital lobe'. I asked 'what's that in English?' And then he said it was a type of stroke."
She wasn't allowed to train for 12 weeks and admitted to feeling "scared to do anything on my own" during that period. She stopped stepping out of her house while her parents took turns living with her in Manchester.
Further tests revealed a hole in her heart but when she underwent surgery, doctors found a membrane had formed and covered it up.
The England international revealed that she didn't mention her condition to any of her City teammates at the time, as she was in the process of sealing a move to Barça in the summer. A couple of weeks before her diagnosis, she had agreed a pre-contract with the Spanish giants.
However, Roebuck found support in NFL Super Bowl winner Tedy Brushchi, who had suffered two strokes, and former Chelsea and Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech, who had a serious head injury in 2006.
"I had a call with him [Cech] for about two hours and it was amazing. Although it wasn't directly the same, it was someone I could relate to going through a similar thing," she said.
"He touched on things that nobody else got. No matter how many times I tried to express myself, I couldn't. Nobody could relate to what I was going through.
"He is now a good friend of mine. He came to watch me train the other day in Barcelona. So, there are positives to come out of it -- the new relationships I've formed.