When the U.S. women’s national team released its roster for the October friendlies against England and Spain, one notable name was nowhere to be found.

One of the USWNT’s most prolific forwards, Alex Morgan, did not feature on the 24-player roster due to a nagging knee injury, coach Vlatko Andonovski said Thursday.

Andonovski said he discussed the matter with Morgan, and the two made the decision together.

“We decided that for her health, and long-term health especially, the best thing for her would be not to travel,” Andonovski said.

Andonovski couldn’t comment on the severity of the injury, he said. But he did note that if circumstances were different – for example, if these matches weren’t friendlies – then Morgan’s name would have been on the list.

“What I can say is that if this was a World Cup final, Alex would have been on this trip and she was going to play this game, no question,” the coach said.

.@USWNT Coach Vlatko Andonovski expands on the knee injury keeping star forward Alex Morgan out of October's camp. pic.twitter.com/Ldeox1CKGy

— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) September 29, 2022

Instead, Morgan, who has appeared in 198 international games with 119 goals and 46 assists, will be absent. Without its starting striker, the USWNT will be down to one natural striker — Ashley Hatch — for the European swing.

Yet while her injury leaves an obvious hole in the lineup, Morgan’s absence also provides space for younger players to make their marks — including teenage sensation Alyssa Thompson, who has received her first call up at 17 years old.

Thompson most recently played for the U.S. youth national team, and she posted a goal and an assist in a U20 World Cup match against Ghana in August.

The development of young players is crucial in the games against England and Spain, Andonovski said.

“In the group of players that we have on this roster, it is obvious that it’s a very young group,” he said. “They have to experience this. I believe it is the closest that we can get to playing an actual World Cup. I’m very excited for this opportunity for the team, and I’m very excited for the young players.”

The USWNT heads to Wembley Stadium to take on England on Oct. 7, in a game that sold out in less than a day when the tickets were released in August.

Morgan has been a key piece for the USWNT for years, and her performance against England in the 2019 World Cup semifinals quickly went down in soccer history.

The U.S. won that contest 2-1, with Morgan scoring the go-ahead goal in the 31st minute of the first half. She celebrated by sipping an imaginary cup of tea – a moment that went viral.

While some took the gesture as a reference to England’s national affinity for the drink, or even as a reference to the Boston Tea Party, Morgan offered a different explanation.

“My celebration was actually more, ‘That’s the tea,’ which is telling a story, spreading news,” she told reporters at the time.

Here for Alex Morgan’s sipping tea celebration 😂 pic.twitter.com/vUOhJolHJ4

— Meghan Montemurro (@M_Montemurro) July 2, 2019

Preparation for the next World Cup, which is set to kick off in Australia in July 2023, is the priority, Andonovski said.

Still, Morgan’s need to rest her knee may also have something to do with NWSL play, as her San Diego Wave squad is gearing up for playoffs. They have already clinched a spot in the postseason as the league heads into the last weekend of regular-season play.

For NWSL players participating in the October friendlies for the USWNT, the turnaround to NWSL playoffs will be tight.

After playing England, the squad faces Spain on Oct. 11. The NWSL playoffs begin just five days later on Oct. 16.

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.

On Tuesday, FIFPRO announced the launch of Project ACL, a three-year research initiative designed to address a steep uptick in ACL injuries across women's professional football.

Project ACL is a joint venture between FIFPRO, England’s Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA), Nike, and Leeds Beckett University. While the central case study will focus on England’s top-flight Women's Super League, the findings will be distributed around the world.

ACL tears are between two- and six-times more likely to occur in women footballers than men, according to The Guardian. And with both domestic and international programming on the rise for the women’s game, we’ve seen some of the sport's biggest names moved to the season-ending injury list with ACL-related knocks.

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Soccer superstars like Vivianne Miedema, Beth Mead, Catarina Macario, Marta, and England captain Leah Williamson have all struggled with their ACLs in recent years, though all have since returned to the field. In January, Chelsea and Australia forward Sam Kerr was herself sidelined with the injury, kicking off a year of similar cases across women’s professional leagues. And just yesterday, the Spirit announced defender Anna Heilferty would miss the rest of the NWSL season with a torn ACL. The news comes less than two weeks after Bay FC captain Alex Loera went down with the same injury. 

Project ACL will closely study players in the WSL, monitoring travel, training, and recovery practices to look for trends that could be used to prevent the injury in the future. Availability of sports science and medical resources within individual clubs will be taken into account throughout the process.

ACL injuries in women's football have long outpaced the same injury in the men's game, but resources for specialized prevention and treatment still lag behind. Investment in achieving a deeper, more specialized understanding of the problem should hopefully alleviate the issue both on and off the field.

With recent transfers Talia von Oelhoffen and Kiki Iriafen joining first-team All-American JuJu Watkins and the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class at USC next season, the Trojans look to transition from an up-and-coming squad to a legitimate title contender. 

Former Oregon State graduate student von Oelhoffen is the latest collegiate talent to commit to the program, announcing her transfer Monday via ESPN. She follows ex-Stanford leading-scorer Iriafen in the jump to the pair’s one-time Pac-12 rival.

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The 5-foot-11 Washington native was a two-time All-Pac-12 guard during her time at Oregon State. But after the recent dissolution of the Pac-12, the Corvallis side found themselves without a permanent home conference going forward. Many big name players opted to take their skill elsewhere as a result, with von Oelhoffen’s fellow ex-Beaver Raegan Beers announcing her own departure to Oklahoma on Monday.

According to DraftKings, USC is now tied with UConn for the second-best betting odds to win the 2025 NCAA women’s tournament. Dawn Staley’s tested South Carolina side, poised for a repeat performance, holds down the number one spot.

Last year, LSU loaded up in the transfer portal after beating Iowa to win the 2023 national championship. The Tigers were clear favorites coming into the 2023-24 season, but were bounced in the Elite Eight by Caitlin Clark’s Hawkeyes. Shortly thereafter, star transfer Hailey Van Lith opted to transfer a second time, this time signing with TCU. 

Yet while history proves that an excess of star power doesn’t always translate to on-court chemistry, on paper, USC sure looks ready to hold their own — in 2025 and beyond.

The United States and Mexico have withdrawn their joint bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup, per a Monday afternoon release from U.S. Soccer and the Mexican Football Federation.

According to the statement, they will instead focus on developing a "more equitable" bid for the 2031 tournament, with the ultimate goal of "eliminating investment disparities" between the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The federations went on to cite the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico as an opportunity to build support for local infrastructure, improve audience engagement, and scale up media and partnership deals in preparation to "host a record-breaking tournament in 2031."

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"Hosting a World Cup tournament is a huge undertaking — and having additional time to prepare allows us to maximize its impact across the globe," said U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone. "Shifting our bid will enable us to host a record-breaking Women’s World Cup in 2031 that will help to grow and raise the level of the women’s game both here at home as well as across the globe."

The decision leaves just Brazil and a joint bid from Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands in the running for the 2027 host spot. Brazil — the rumored frontrunner — has never hosted a Women’s World Cup, while Germany hosted the 2011 tournament as a solo venture. 

Furthermore, this postponement doesn’t mean the U.S. is a shoo-in for 2031, as it's been previously reported that 2022 UEFA Women's EURO host England is considering their own Women's World Cup bid. FIFA is scheduled to confirm the winning bid after the FIFA Congress votes on May 17th.