From Christen Press to Alexia Putellas, from Beth Mead to Vivianne Miedema, ACL injuries have ravaged women’s soccer ahead of the 2023 World Cup.

Yet even with injuries to Press and other stars, the U.S. women’s national team enters 2023 in stronger position than much of its World Cup competition thanks to the depth of its roster — and the recovery timelines for some of its injured players.

Miedema became the latest international star to tear a knee ligament. She went down with a left leg injury in Arsenal’s Champions League match against Lyon last Thursday, and she announced Monday that she had ruptured her ACL and would miss the World Cup.

Her injury comes as a blow to the Netherlands. The 2019 runners-up will face off against the USWNT in the group stage next summer, a task made more daunting with their all-time leading scorer on the bench.

💔🤕🩼

Gutted to share I’ve ruptured my ACL.

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PS. I can’t wait to boss around @bmeado9 this time, at least we’ve still got two decent ACL’s between us 🩼😅 pic.twitter.com/E52GAQP1GI

— Vivianne Miedema (@VivianneMiedema) December 19, 2022

She joins a long list of top players to suffer ACL injuries in 2022, among them:

• Beth Mead, who helped lead England to a European Championship this summer with her Golden Boot-winning run but will miss the World Cup after rupturing her ACL in November.
• France’s Marie-Antoinette Katoto, who tore her ACL during the Euros in July.
• Spain’s Alexia Putellas, who injured hers in training ahead of the summer tournament, and her teammate Jennifer Hermoso, who injured hers in June.

The USWNT has had several players sidelined with ACL injuries as well. Press’ injury came in an Angel City FC match in June, and Catarina Macario’s came in a Lyon match later that month. Tierna Davidson tore her ACL in March while training with the Chicago Red Stars.

Despite the injuries, the USWNT has maintained its world No. 1 ranking. The team lost three games in a row for the first time since 1993, which is cause for concern, but the key injuries to other national teams could boost the odds for the defending World Cup champions.

While the USWNT had to deal with an injury list that only seemed to grow throughout the year, younger players gained valuable experience ahead of next summer’s tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

Sophia Smith has stepped up in the absence of players like Macario and Press. Her minutes and production increased from 2021 to 2022, as she jumped from one goal in 329 minutes to a team-leading 11 in 1,192. Mallory Pugh and Alex Morgan also made triumphant returns after spending some time on the outside looking in.

All the while, players like Naomi Girma, Taylor Kornieck and Trinity Rodman earned valuable minutes and helped to showcase the future of the squad.

Plus, because the USWNT’s ACL injuries occurred in the first half of 2022, those players could return to the national team well ahead of the 2023 World Cup, which kicks off in July.

Davidson has returned to training with VfL Wolfsburg. Macario is expected to return in February, as is Press, who per her Instagram account appears to be making strides in her recovery.

Christen Press back putting in the work after tearing her ACL. pic.twitter.com/XC1D5CDheT

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) December 19, 2022

If Macario, Press and Davidson — or any number of other injured players — return to the USWNT in early 2023, they’ll find themselves competing for minutes with players who carved out roles in 2022.

And while the USWNT still has plenty of polishing left to do ahead of the World Cup, their increased depth could set the team up for a deep run.

The NFL is putting women on the gridiron, with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing plans to launch both a men's and women's professional flag football league at Thursday's Leaders in Sport conference in London.

Looking to have both new ventures up and running in "the next couple of years," the NFL's goal is to introduce the leagues prior to the 2028 Summer Games in LA, where flag football will make its Olympic debut.

"The demand is there. We're seeing colleges in the States and universities internationally also that want to make it a part of their program," Goodell said. "If you set that structure up where there's youth leagues, going into high school, into college, and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That's an important infrastructure that we need to create."

Building that infrastructure also feeds the ongoing NFL goal of growing flag football in order to construct a young fanbase for the gridiron sport at-large, with the league investing in a fan pipeline to support the NFL's future.

In part due to past NFL investments, women's flag football has seen significant growth across the US over the last 25 years, with over 30 states now offering competitive opportunities for high school girls — and at least half of those states fielding it as a full-fledged varsity championship sport.

Even the NCAA is getting in on the action, taking initial steps earlier this year to introduce flag football across all three of the governing body's divisions in the near future.

Though the LA Olympics are three years away, flag football is already charging ahead on the international stage, featuring in the 2022 and 2025 World Games — where the same US talent that the NFL is eyeing for its new league snagged a pair of silver medals.

The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season is just around the corner, and the Big Ten is celebrating by shouting out the conference's top predicted performers in both the coaches and media preseason polls on Thursday.

The UCLA Bruins — the Big Ten's singular 2025 Final Four participant — took the top team spot in both surveys, with the Maryland Terrapins trailing just behind as the conference's No. 2 ranked squad.

Rounding out the Top 5 in both polls were the USC Trojans, Michigan Wolverines, and Ohio State Buckeyes.

As for individual athletes, UCLA senior and the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts clocked in as the polls' unanimous favorite for Big Ten Player of the Year, with the standout center unsurprisingly capturing the top spot in the absence of injured USC star and 2025 Naismith Player of the Year JuJu Watkins.

Also picking up preseason All-Big Ten Team honors in both surveys were fellow UCLA standout Kiki Rice plus four other seniors: Iowa's Hannah Stuelke, Maryland's Yarden Garzon and Kaylene Smikle, and Michigan State's Grace VanSlooten.

A trio of underclassmen also made the cut in both 2025/26 preseason polls, with Ohio State's Jaloni Cambridge — last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year — joined by a pair of fellow sophomores from archrival Michigan, Olivia Olson and Syla Swords.

The final spot on the All-Big Ten Team lists went to one of the Washington Huskies, with the 18 conference head coaches tapping junior Sayvia Sellers while the media honored senior Elle Ladine.

The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season tips off on November 3rd.

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball is hitting the road, with the offseason league announcing on Thursday that it will make its first-ever tour stop during the upcoming expanded 2026 season when it takes over Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia on January 30th.

"The energy and dedication of everyone who helped bring this tour stop to life, combined with the passion of Philadelphia's sports fans, made the city the perfect stage for Unrivaled," league president Alex Bazzell said in Thursday's press release.

Featuring four as-yet-unannounced Unrivaled teams in a regular-season doubleheader, the Miami-based league will also pack additional activations and events supporting the competition into its inaugural tour stop.

"Philadelphia is the city of firsts, so it makes perfect sense that the Unrivaled League picked our historical city, with unmatched sports enthusiasts, as its first tour stop," said Philadelphia mayor Cherelle L. Parker.

The upstart league's first foray outside of Miami will also mark Philadelphia's first professional women's basketball games since 1998.

"Advancing women's pro sports in Philly has been a goal we've passionately pursued for years," said comedian Wanda Sykes, an Unrivaled investor and a founding member of the Philadelphia Sisters, a women's sports advocacy group. "Unrivaled, this groundbreaking league, is set to elevate the women's basketball ecosystem as a whole, and we are honored that Philly has been chosen as its first-ever tour stop."

How to purchase tickets to Unrivaled in Philadelphia

Unrivaled isn't revealing the four participating teams until sometime next month, but fans can secure their own spots at the Philadelphia tour stop today.

Tickets for the January 30th doubleheader are currently available for purchase online at Ticketmaster.

With just four regular-season matchdays remaining in the 2025 NWSL season, the clock is quickly ticking down for teams making a late push to rise above the postseason cutoff line on the league table — including the No. 10 Houston Dash.

Currently sitting three points outside of playoff contention, a motivated Houston side will look to make a leap against No. 5 Orlando on Friday night, as the defending champion Pride continues reeling from their recently snapped nine-game NWSL winless streak.

"For us, the next couple of matches are finals," Dash head coach Fabrice Gautrat said after last weekend's 4-0 loss to the No. 2 Washington Spirit. "We have to keep approaching it one game at a time like we've been doing, but we definitely have to have a response against the Orlando Pride."

Notably, Houston enters Friday's matchup with new firepower in the midfield, as teen phenom Chloe Ricketts joins the Dash as a short-term signing from the Spirit before she moves to incoming expansion side Boston Legacy FC in 2026.

"[Ricketts] is very lively, has great energy, great attitude, is eager and ambitious," said Gautrat of Houston's Wednesday signee. "She could play anywhere on our front line, to be honest."

How to watch the Houston Dash vs. Orlando Pride

The No. 10 Houston Dash will host the No. 5 Orlando Pride at 8 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage airing on Prime.