Burnley Boss Returns to the Dugout Months After Nearly Dying From Sepsis

Burnley manager Jackie Bachteler will lead her team from the touchline at Turf Moor this Sunday for the first time since taking the job. Nine months ago, she was fighting for her life in intensive care.

Bachteler, 37, joined Burnley in December 2025 to coach the women's first team and men's academy. Three weeks into the job, she was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with sepsis, a condition that can kill quickly if it is not treated in time. She spent days unable to walk and is still dealing with the after-effects today.

Her first home game in charge falls on World Sepsis Day, and she says she wants to use the moment to help other people spot the warning signs.

How It Started

Bachteler had moved from San Diego and put her symptoms down to jet lag and a heavy workload. Then one morning at the training ground, everything changed.

"The whole room spun," she told BBC Sport. She struggled to breathe and called for the club doctor right away.

Her blood pressure crashed and her oxygen levels dropped fast. Doctors first tried to send her home, but she pushed back.

"I knew something wasn't right and asked them to do more," she said. "They checked my blood pressure and it just plummeted. Then I couldn't walk. I was so dizzy and really confused. I was getting blotches on my skin."

A blood test brought a group of doctors running toward her. She was put on two IVs, given fluids and antibiotics, and placed on oxygen.

Days in Intensive Care

Bachteler spent several days in the ICU while doctors checked her blood every 20 minutes. Her family in the US could not get to her, and her wife was stuck in a snowstorm in Finland. She faced the illness largely alone.

"On my third day in hospital, I tried to stand up and I couldn't," she said. "The nurses told me not to walk, and when you hear that, it's a bit of an alarm bell."

She needed help even to use the bathroom. Looking back, she says it changed how she sees everything.

"It was close to when you face your mortality," she said. "It just gives you another perspective on life."

A Long Road Back

Bachteler had to relearn how to walk before returning to Burnley in July, this time as manager of the women's team. She still lives with post-sepsis syndrome, which brings dizziness and heavy fatigue.

During a pre-season friendly, the symptoms hit her again on the touchline.

"I was just so dizzy," she said. "I gave the instruction, talked to the team, and then I went to the cafe on site and said to them, 'Can I sit in your freezer?' I just needed to calm down. Then I started crying because my nervous system is still recovering, and it's just been really, really hard."

She credits Burnley's medical staff with saving her life and says the club has connected her with a respiratory specialist.

The Toll on Her Family

The illness has been hard on the people closest to her too. She remembers a dinner in May with her visiting parents that ended early.

"We went for Sunday dinner and it was loud. I just got so dizzy, and they could see it," she said. "As we were walking back, I was shaking and I didn't know where I was. They started crying, both of them. I think it was even harder for them."

When her wife first saw her in hospital, she broke down at how much weight Bachteler had lost.

"She had to hold me up going down the stairs," Bachteler said.

Wanting to Raise Awareness

Bachteler says she did not fully understand sepsis before it nearly killed her.

"I didn't even know what sepsis was before. I thought it was something you heard on Grey's Anatomy," she said. "I didn't understand the severity of it and how much it's missed by doctors. It's a silent killer."

She now hopes her story, and Sunday's game, can help others recognise the symptoms early.

"Over 50% of survivors have post-sepsis syndrome," she said. "To be standing on the pitch, doing something that I've dreamed of doing every single day, and knowing that wouldn't have been the case almost a year ago, it's a bit poetic it's on World Sepsis Day."

Burnley host Sunderland in the Women's Super League 2 on Sunday at 14:00 WAT.