Goalkeeper Safia Middleton-Patel is a part of the Wales squad for Euro 2025. She is sparky, considerate, and has an infectious snicker. She can also be autistic.
Overstimulation has despatched her to mattress, exhausted, for every week. A misunderstood social interplay can spoil her temper for months. She is going to drive miles previous a petroleum station to seek out one with a self-pay pump. And, unconnected to her dysfunction, she is of the opinion that tomatoes are greens, regardless of the scientists say. Of which extra later.
However in the beginning, the 20-year-old Manchester United goalkeeper is a massively promising footballer – being named participant of the match after a string of nice saves helped Wales earn a 1-1 attract Sweden in April.
That was within the Nations League – and now she is heading to Switzerland for July’s European Championship, with Wales drawn in Group D alongside England, France and the Netherlands after qualifying for a significant match for the primary time.
As goalkeeper for the lowest-ranked facet within the match she will be able to look forward to finding herself within the thick of the motion if chosen – wherein case Middleton-Patel will flip to her trusted, and presumably distinctive, methodology of studying the sport.
“I form of visualise the subsequent move as like the right Lego brick I am lacking in my set,” she explains.
“I am trying to find it and I am getting in the appropriate positions to seek out it.
“Individuals most likely do not take into consideration Lego after they’re enjoying soccer, however I am in search of that brick to be prepared. If it [the move] adjustments, you’ll be able to at all times use a distinct color one – it will possibly at all times be a distinct move.”
Among the many many facets of Autism Spectrum Dysfunction (ASD) – which may embody difficulties with social interplay, sensory points, and the necessity for routine and construction – hyperfocus is the attribute many neurodivergent sportspeople single out as enjoying a big position of their careers.
“Once I’m enjoying, that is once I’m hyperfocused,” says Middleton-Patel. “When I’m on the coaching floor or enjoying a sport I do not hear something – it is simply the ball and myself.
“I most likely hear my very own heartbeat greater than the rest.”
That laser-like focus, and the quietening of the thoughts, is a welcome change for Middleton-Patel, who admits she will be able to discover events most individuals would discover regular to be overwhelming – each when she is across the sport, or in life typically.
“If I am sat on a bench or I am sat within the crowd, or I am watching soccer on the TV – oof. I hear all of the followers, I hear all of the cheers, I hear all of the clapping,” she says.
“If somebody is sat subsequent to me ingesting, I am like: ‘Why are you ingesting so loud? Are you able to cease?'” she provides with a smile, conscious of the humour within the scenario.
“Typically I’ll sit on the bench and I am going to have my arms over my ears and I get soiled seems to be from the followers as a result of they’re like, ‘are you a baby?’
“No, I am attempting to focus.”
When Manchester United put out clackers for followers at an FA Cup sport, she discovered the noise the group made insufferable, resulting in her stimming, exterior – finger drumming is an enormous one for her – to attempt to forestall herself changing into overwhelmed.
“It bought to the tip of the sport and I’m sat, arms on my ears, rocking, as a result of I could not regulate any of my feelings and by the tip of it I wanted to take time for myself,” she says.
“I really like the followers and I wish to converse to the followers, however I have to get inside and that is the place it is onerous since you’ll get some messages on-line being like, ‘my daughter was there for you and also you did not say hello’.
“I am actually sorry, however my psychological well being is my precedence and if I have to go inside and simply sit in a quiet room for 2 minutes, I’ll should. In any other case the remainder of the week can be sabotaged due to that.”
The important thing, she says, is discovering a steadiness.
“I really like my followers, however I additionally dread assembly them due to ‘the entrance’ I worry I’ve to placed on, as a result of if I give them one bizarre look or one soiled look when my face is so straight and it is unintentional, they take it the incorrect means,” she provides.
“[You want to say] ‘I am actually sorry, however there’s too many ideas occurring. I wasn’t trying and observing you blankly and never being excited since you’re losing my time. I actually wish to meet you, however I am additionally very nervous for this interplay.'”
And whereas she firmly believes individuals shouldn’t be ashamed of overtly stimming, it will possibly nonetheless make her really feel self-conscious when individuals discover, solely growing her discomfort.
“Typically once I’m sat within the stadium and I am rocking and the followers are there [and one might be looking at you], it makes you so self-conscious as a result of I am like ‘straighten up on the chair, breathe in correctly, am I trying in the appropriate place? OK, do I look the half?’
“It is like, ‘why do I’ve to do that? Why do I make myself really feel like I’ve to placed on this huge efficiency?'”