1 Oct 2025

Football Fern Ali Riley to hang up the boots

From Checkpoint, 5:29 pm on 1 October 2025

Long-serving Football Fern Ali Riley has endured what she's described as a year from hell. Months battling a chronic nerve injury that she was stuggling to find answers about, as well as losing her family home in the Los Angeles fires has given the former Football Ferns captain some perspective. She will retire from football at the end of her club season, bringing to an end a nearly three-decade long career, on her own terms. Sports reporter Felicity Reid spoke to Lisa Owen.