Aston Villa Women goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck is ready to reintroduce herself after two life-changing years.

The 25-year-old has returned to the WSL from Barcelona this summer, and after recovering from an ischaemic stroke, is hoping that a new start can help her return to her best levels.

In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, Roebuck said: “Towards the back end of last season, I wanted to come home, not because anything was wrong, but I wanted to come back to the WSL to challenge myself, to hopefully get back playing and push myself in that aspect.

“I loved every minute at Barcelona, it was an absolutely incredible experience and I don’t have a bad word to say about it, but football-wise, I knew that I needed to make a change in order to get back to me and my level. I’m still only young, although I feel quite old.

“There’s a great project going on here and the club’s really backing the women’s team. It felt like a really nice fit. The manager [Natalia Arroyo] is Spanish as well, so I still had a little bit of that and I think our visions aligned.”

Roebuck’s return to England will hopefully mark the end of a chapter that tested her mental and physical resilience.

The 25-year-old suffered her stroke at the start of the 2023/24 season while she was at Manchester City, which left her needing extensive recovery and leaving her off the pitch for 19 months.

It has helped Roebuck to reassess her priorities and not only needing to adapt to a new way of life after a major health incident, but it is also fuelling her WSL return.

“It’s been a really difficult time, to say the least,” the goalkeeper said. “Maybe looking back a year ago, football wasn’t necessarily a priority and rightly so. There were many other things that were a lot more important.

“Now I’m in a place where I’m comfortable with all of that. It took some adjusting, I’ve had to learn how to be a new version of myself, learn different ways to prioritise my health and adapt to what I’ve been dealt because that’s the reality of it. I’m trying to move on and make the best out of a pretty bad situation, but that’s life, things happen.

“Now I’m looking to put that behind me and take the lessons that I’ve learned from that experience, hopefully build on them and focus on playing football.

“I’ve learned a lot in terms of resilience and the body is such a powerful thing. I don’t want to say it’s a comeback, because it’s not necessarily something that I could have done anything about, but it adds fuel the fire that’s always been burning in the background to get back there. I believe in myself.”

Moving to a new club and country while recovering from a stroke was arguably not on Roebuck’s to-do list, but she had already committed to joining Barcelona, a move she describes as ‘bold’.

She made just a handful of appearances in her season in Spain – including her return to action in December 2024 – but credits the move with teaching her that she can do anything she sets her mind to.

“I’m really proud of myself for taking that step,” she said. “People from the outside are always going to have their opinions about what’s right and wrong, whether I should have gone somewhere that was easier to play or these types of things.

“But I signed with Barcelona before I’d had the stroke, so it was already in the motions of happening. That was my aim, not only to come back after having a stroke, but to come back at the best team in the world.

“Nobody can say they’ve ever done that before or even give that a shot. For me, it was something I wanted to do and something I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing. That really set the bar for me. I know that I’m limitless within that now.

“To go and train day in, day out and take shots from the best players in the world, I know that I took myself to the maximum and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

“It’s a scary thing coming back to play football after not playing for six months, throwing your head at people’s feet and to do that there, it gave me the confidence that I can do that anywhere.”

Now, she will use that to help Aston Villa this season. It was a turbulent campaign last year, seeing three managers – including Shaun Goater as interim coach – as the club looked to avoid a relegation battle.

That was achieved with five WSL wins at the end of the campaign under new boss Natalia Arroyo, eventually finishing sixth. This season will be earmarked to build further on that success with Arroyo having a full pre-season to shape her squad.

“There’s a good mix of seniority and experience and some really exciting young talent,” Roebuck said of her new team-mates.

“They’ve strengthened as well, we’ve brought players from abroad in with experience, some even coming back from the Euros, that adds quality. There’s always transition periods within clubs and I think now it seems to be in a good place.

“There’s a really lovely team spirit. I’ve felt really welcome and it’s been a pleasure to be a part of so far.

“This year, it’s about looking internally and achieving from within. Aston Villa put on an amazing run of games towards the back end of last season and it’s something that I noticed from the outside.

“If you can get that momentum to push and make life difficult for the big teams, but also making sure you’re consistent against the teams that maybe aren’t challenging, you never know where you’re going to end up.

“I would like to win something with this football club for sure.”

Sky to show 90 per cent of all WSL games from 2025/26

Sky Sports will be embarking on a new five-year partnership with the WSL, showing 90 per cent of all Women’s Super League matches from the 2025/26 season. Sky Sports will show 118 live games, including 78 exclusively

From this season, most Women’s Super League matches will kick-off at 12pm on Sundays – subject to stadium availability – giving fans a regular and accessible viewing window.

Sky Sports will broadcast matches concurrently across channels, including Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Sports+ and the Sky Sports app, offering greater choice and visibility.