Layla Guscoth

English defender and NHS doctor who won World Cup bronze with England in 2019 before injury cut her tournament short.

Layla Guscoth was born on 2 March 1992 in Birmingham and began playing netball at 11. While studying medicine at Oxford and later completing her degree at University College London with a BMBS with Distinction in 2016, she built a parallel elite netball career, making her senior England debut in 2012 against Jamaica. Guscoth took a break from international netball between 2015 and 2018 to concentrate on qualifying as a doctor, before returning to help England win bronze at the 2019 World Cup, a tournament cut short by injury against Scotland. She has played for Loughborough Lightning, Hertfordshire Mavericks (winning the 2011 Superleague title), Team Bath — twice being named the club's Coaches' Player of the Year — and Adelaide Thunderbirds in Australia, whom she co-captained alongside Chelsea Pitman in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Guscoth flew home from Australia to volunteer at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital when the Super Netball season was suspended, working alongside her netball commitments throughout her career at Royal United Hospital, Southmead Hospital and as a visiting lecturer at the University of Adelaide. She finally made her first Commonwealth Games appearance in 2022 in her home city of Birmingham, having been named the 2022 Netball Superleague Player of the Season, and continued playing for Team Bath into her thirties while balancing her medical career.

Athletic, physically imposing defender capable of playing goal keeper or goal defence, known for interceptions and reading the game

A widely admired example of balancing professional sport with a medical career, respected across both English and Australian netball

• World Cup bronze 2019
• Netball Superleague title 2011 (Mavericks)
• Superleague Player of the Season 2014