USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski says Rose Lavelle, Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz are all available for Saturday’s World Cup opening group game against Vietnam after fitness concerns in the build up to the tournament.
Andonovski confirmed that not all of his 23-player squad were ready to play the full 90 minutes but that there were no injury concerns ahead of the opening fixture.
The U.S. begins their bid for a historic ‘three-peat’ against World Cup debutants Vietnam at Eden Park.
“Everyone on the team was healthy and available for play,” Andonovski said. “Some players are on limited minutes but everyone from a health perspective, from a medical perspective is healthy.”
Lavelle, one of the U.S.’s standout performers during the 2019 World Cup, has been nursing a knee injury and has not featured since April’s international break.
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“Rose is really good, she’s trained with us, with the team for three weeks and trained with us off and on a little bit before that,” Andonovski said. “We’re not going to force a lot of minutes from the very beginning but we’ll ease everything up as we move on.”
Ertz made her return to the USWNT during a pair of April friendlies against the Republic of Ireland. It was her…
