IT’S LESS THAN three months since Louise Quinn joined Notts County, but all of a sudden, her future has been thrown into uncertainty.

This morning, it was confirmed that the club’s ladies team have folded, just two days before they were due to open their Spring Series campaign against Arsenal.

The team had previously been Lincoln Ladies before relocating three years ago and they have also been one of the top sides in Britain of late.

In addition to Quinn — an experienced Ireland player with 47 caps and Champions League experience at club level — England internationals Carly Telford, Laura Bassett, Jade Moore and Jo Potter were part of the squad.

As well as reaching the FA Cup final, the club had finished sixth in the WSL 1 last season.

Having undergone financial difficulties, local businessman Alan Hardy purchased the debt-ridden club last December.

Despite attempts to turn the situation around, with a bill of almost £1million, the club today made the difficult decision to withdraw from the women’s league.

“It’s a very sad day for me personally and supporters should rest assured I have left no stone unturned in my quest to save the club,” Notts County chairman Hardy added in a statement.

Notwithstanding the well-documented financial problems, the news still came as a big shock to players and staff. Hardy previously was understood to have indicated that the ladies team could stay afloat for the immediate future at least, so today’s news has understandably left people reeling, particularly as it comes so close to the start of the season.

Quinn and her teammates initially suspected something was awry last night, when they each received a text message informing them that Friday’s training was cancelled and they were required to attend a meeting at 11am this morning.

“We went into (Notts County’s home stadium) Meadow Lane, waited about for a bit and then had the meeting,” Quinn tells The42.

“They basically just told us the news straight out that the club was no more and that it’s gone into liquidation.

Having only signed for Notts County in February, Quinn’s time at the club has ended before it could really begin. Nevertheless, she was as stunned as the rest of her tearful teammates by today’s shock news.

“Some of the houses that we live in, they’re owned by the club, we’re not sure how long we can actually stay for. We don’t know when we’ll be asked to leave the houses. It’s a massive shock.”

And does she feel let down by the people at the top of the club, given that this news has come more or less out of the blue, with previous indications that the ladies team would be safe for the immediate future at least?

“That they signed another couple of players (in pre-season) makes you think everything is going to be okay. When they told us (the news) today, they had no answers for us. We were trying to figure out what had happened, what had gone on, what is going to happen to our future. Will we get our wages for this month? They had absolutely no answers, which was even tougher to take. We have no idea what’s going on — we’re all stuck in limbo.