Late in the 2022 National Women’s Soccer League season, United States women’s national team and Portland Thorns star Crystal Dunn returned to play just four months after giving birth to her son, Marcel. Mere weeks later, she scored a goal in second-half stoppage time to send Portland to the NWSL Championship.
But even a player as talented as Dunn had doubts about whether she’d be able to return to play after giving birth. “The process of getting back, I mean, it feels endless,” she told hosts Meghan Klingenberg and Eric Alvarez on the NBC and Telemundo podcast “My New Favorite Futbolista.” “You’re just like, Am I ever gonna be able to run for five minutes straight? Who knows? …
“There was doubts. There was moments of, here and there, where I was like, ‘Oh, I feel unfit. I am severely out of shape. This doesn’t feel great.’ And then, from one day to another, I mean, there’s a switch where you just all of a sudden are like, ‘I’m feeling good.’”
This season, Dunn has five goals in 11 games, which ranks fifth in the…
