The former Aberdeen midfielder, now with Swindon, opens up about the debilitating effect of suffering an ACL injury during her time in Scotland
“P
eople need to know what happened,” Laura Holden says as she reflects on her difficult two years at Aberdeen when injury changed the course of her life. “It’s not all sunshine and roses. There are demons that just get brushed under the carpet without having the light shone on them.”
It has taken the Swindon Town midfielder time and a change of club to process everything that happened in Scotland. Holden joined the Dons in August 2023, determined to establish herself as a key player at one of the biggest clubs in the Scottish Women’s Premier League. But just six matches and 31 minutes into the first season, she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament away at Hibernian.
The long way back to fitness was laid bare immediately, but Holden was unaware then that she would find navigating her relationship with the club her biggest test. Holden claims she was neglected by Aberdeen and members of its coaching and physiotherapy team, causing her mental health to deteriorate at an alarming rate and compel her, in 2025, to leave the life she had built in Scotland behind.
