The United States will carry the honor of two-time reigning champion into the FIFA Women’s World Cup when it opens on July 20. Many of the players who made that happen are no longer with the team. Several who still are part of the program are fighting injuries and either will miss the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup or are fighting to be in the best possible condition in time.
In their three decades of dominating the biggest women’s soccer competitions, the USWNT never have faced an injury crisis like this.
The USWNT have three young world-class attacking players in their pool, but two will miss the tournament with major injuries. The most recent, a torn patellar tendon, will keep Mallory Swanson out of the World Cup after she had been the team’s best player to start 2023, scoring in the first five games of the year. Catarina Macario tore her ACL in spring 2022 and ruled herself out of the World Cup after she was unable to appear either for her club or the national team for the subsequent year.
Other important team members also have been affected by injury: midfielder Sam Mewis (knee), central defender Abby Dahlkemper (back issue in 2022), forward Christen Press (ACL), and versatile defender Tierna Davidson, who recovered from a knee injury to return to her club, but not…
