U.S. women’s national team veterans Megan Rapinoe and Rose Lavelle are cleared to play but will start the World Cup on limited minutes, head coach Vlatko Andonovski said ahead of the opening match against Vietnam.
Julie Ertz, meanwhile, is fully fit to play, a boon to the USWNT midfield.
Fellow midfielder Lavelle hasn’t played in a competitive match since April due to a knee injury, while Rapinoe has been out since June 10 with a calf injury. Neither saw action in the team’s 2-0 win over Wales in its send-off match on July 9. At the time, Andonovski said both were medically cleared but remained in “the buildup stage.”
He echoed those sentiments Friday, saying that the two are “ready to play – from a medical standpoint, everyone’s available.”
“Rose actually has been really good — she’s trained with the team now for a good three weeks, and off-and-on she trained with us before that,” Andonovski said. “She’s ready to play and we’re not going to force a lot of minutes from the beginning. We’ll ease everything up as we move on.”
Andonovski noted that Ertz, who also didn’t play in the send-off match, is at “100 percent.”
“From minutes management, Julie is 100% where Megan is in the same boat like Rose,” he said. “Her minutes are probably going to grow as the tournament goes by.”