Arsenal has announced the signing of Emily Fox, with the USWNT defender joining the Gunners from the North Carolina Courage.

It confirms what has been reported for weeks, including a rumored sighting of Fox in a Getty image that has since been removed from the photo database. She follows in the footsteps of USWNT stars Heather O’Reilly and Tobin Heath, who both played for Arsenal.

In a statement, Fox said that it’s “amazing” to have signed with Arsenal.

“When I think of Arsenal, I think of excellence, I think of a global organization, I think of family,” Fox said. “I think of pushing the standards of football and especially in the women’s game. It’s a huge honor to get the opportunity to represent this club and I’m excited to get started and play in front of our supporters.”

It will be the 25-year-old’s first time playing outside of the United States. But she already knows a couple of her teammates, having played with Alessia Russo and Lotte Wubben-Moy at the University of North Carolina.

“Emily has shown impressive development over recent seasons and her strengths in both phases will make her an important addition to our squad,” Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall said. “At international level, the experience she’s built up gives her an excellent foundation to make the transition to English football.”

Fox joins USWNT teammates Catarina Macario, Mia Fishel and Kristie Mewis in the Women’s Super League. Macario and Fishel both play for cross-town rival Chelsea while Mewis recently joined West Ham.

Arsenal currently sit third in the WSL behind Manchester City and leaders Chelsea. The league will return from its winter break on Jan. 27.

All signs point to Emily Fox having signed with Arsenal after the USWNT star showed up in the background of some training photos on Sunday in Getty Images.

The picture has since been deleted from Getty, but was credited to Arsenal photographer David Price as part of the club’s coverage collection. In the foreground of the photo are defender Leah Williamson and forward Beth Mead in pre match jerseys. In the background of the picture walks another player, who looks strikingly similar to Fox.

The team had a closed door friendly against Dutch club Feyenoord in Portugal.

Reports have previously linked the North Carolina Courage star to the WSL club. Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall has hinted at adding more players in the offseason, and Arsenal reporter Tim Stillman reported that the restricted free agent was a potential target.

On Friday, BBC’s Emma Sanders reported that Arsenal were “close” to signing Fox, with hopes of reaching an agreement. She also reported that the two sides had been in “advanced talks since before Christmas.”

Arsenal is currently third in the WSL, tied with Manchester City with 22 points and sitting behind Chelsea, who has 25 points and will now be without star forward Sam Kerr, who tore her ACL on Sunday.

Arsenal and North Carolina Courage are in advanced talks to send star defender Emily Fox across the pond. 

Arsenal head coach Jonas Eidevall has hinted at adding more players this offseason, and Fox could be sent to Arsenal on a free transfer, according to a report from OneFootball. Fox may be moving in the January transfer window, per Arsenal reporter Tim Stillman. Fox is a restricted free agent, though, so nothing is certain yet.

“Ideally was hoping to say this after a win (!) but I understand that USWNT right-back Emily Fox to Arsenal in January is at an advanced stage,” Stillman wrote on X, formerly Twitter. 

The 25-year-old defender made 17 starts for the Courage in the 2023 season. She also started in all four matches for the U.S. women’s national team at the 2023 World Cup. She is versatile enough to play both left and right back and is a key target in the Gunners’ plans, according to the latest reports.

Beth Mead is back with the England national team after tearing her ACL a year ago.

Mead last featured for England in November 2022, but she suffered an ACL tear with Arsenal later that month. As a result, the 28-year-old forward missed the World Cup for the Lionesses.

In May of this year, Mead described her recovery as “ahead of schedule,” saying she hoped to make the World Cup. But at the time, England coach Sarina Wiegman said it would be a “miracle” if Mead were healthy in time for the tournament.

“I am back on the pitch and kicking a ball again, feeling good, ahead of schedule,” Mead said in May. “That’s all I can do that’s in my control right now.”

Mead did not make it back for the World Cup in July, but she returned to the pitch with Women’s Super League club Arsenal in October. And on Tuesday, Wiegman said her conversation with Mead when calling her into this camp was a “very nice phone call.”

“Of course that’s really nice,” she said. “She’s played minutes. She’s in a good place and still building. But that was a very nice phone call and she was very happy.”

The Lionesses did fine at the World Cup, reaching the final even without Mead and Leah Williamson. But they’ve struggled this fall, and their hopes of making the Olympics and topping their Nations League group are hanging by a thread after a loss to Belgium in October.

England faces a tall test in its next Nations League games. The Lionesses will face the Netherlands on Dec. 1 at Wembley and Scotland on Dec. 5 at Hampden Park. If they are to top their group, they’ll need to win both games. And if they want to guarantee their Olympic qualification, they’ll need to reach the final of the Nations League.

“We know we’ll need to win our last two games of 2023 and we’ll give everything we have for that outcome,” Wiegman said. “This group have shown resilience and strength of character time and time again and I have absolutely no doubts we’ll be ready to go when the whistle blows for both fixtures.”

Fans who wanted to purchase Arsenal’s designer kits will soon be out of luck.

The bespoke away kit, created by adidas Creative Director Stella McCartney, was nearly sold out on Arsenal’s team shop as of early Saturday morning.

The team will debit the kit for an away Women’s Super League game at Manchester United on Oct. 6, marking the first time Arsenal’s women’s team will wear a different kit than the men.

“It’s so special to be marking this with a collection as playful and bold as this one,” Arsenal star Alessia Russo said in a press release. “For me, football has always been about having fun and getting creative – it’s why I got into it as a young girl and it’s what inspires me today.

“I love that this collection represents that, and I can’t wait to wear the shirt with pride on match day.”

As of early Saturday morning, there was only one size of the youth kit available, and the regular fit had only large and smaller sizes left. The authentic women’s and men’s fits were both sold out.

The eight-piece collection includes a shirt made with AEROREADY technology, which combines sweat-wicking and absorbent materials to ensure a dry feel.

“I love that the away jersey taps into the exciting intersection of fashion and football through its elevated geometric print and captivating hues – with technical performance materials at the core,” McCartney said. “It’s important that both players and fans alike can playfully express themselves as they move on and off the pitch, and we hope this bold, new collection can play a part in that.”

The men’s Arsenal team will wear the jerseys as a pre-match warmup before its game against Manchester City on Oct. 8.

Taylor Swift made headlines Sunday when she cheered on Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. But this is far from her first foray into sports.

The 12-time Grammy-winning superstar is a well-established fan and friend of the U.S. women’s national team, in particular veteran forward Alex Morgan. She hosted the 2015 World Cup-winning team on stage at her 1989 World Tour, and she announced Morgan’s place on the 2023 World Cup roster.

So in honor of Swift’s continued world domination, Just Women’s Sports has paired her albums with women’s soccer kits from the 2023 World Cup, the Women’s Super League and the NWSL.

Fearless (Taylor’s Version)

Australian superstar Sam Kerr and the Matildas’ bright World Cup kits drag us headfirst into the rankings. Does it get better than this?

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

World Cup champion Spain enchanted the crowd at the 2023 tournament with these coral reef-inspired kits.

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Red (Taylor’s Version)

Arsenal crashed out of the Women’s Champions League in the qualifying round. Yet despite their run ending so suddenly, they have the whole Women’s Super League season ahead in their classic red kits. So: Begin again?

1989 (Taylor’s Version)

England isn’t out of the woods yet. Despite winning the 2022 Euro title, the Lionesses are still seeking their first World Cup championship after falling to Spain in the 2023 final. But their light blue kits for the tournament will never go out of style.

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Reputation

Are you ready for it? This is the only album on the list not owned by Swift, who is in the process of re-recording her first six albums so she has control of her music. But pairing the edgy “Reputation” with the Thorns’ tattoo-inspired 2023 jerseys proved too tempting to pass up.

Lover

USWNT midfielder Sam Mewis is in her Lover era, she shared on the “Snacks” podcast in April. Don’t roll your eyes, but Angel City FC are in their Lover era too with their 2022 pink-accented kits.

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Folklore

The Football Ferns’ World Cup kits pull from nature, as does Swift’s woodsy “folklore.” While July and August slipped away like a bottle of wine, the memories of the tournament Down Under (and of New Zealand’s first-ever World Cup win) will stick with us.

Evermore

Swift has spoken about the autumnal vibes of “evermore,” and while there are no flannels to be found on the soccer field, the Netherlands’ signature orange kits bring to mind the colors of the season.

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Midnights

The USWNT did not have the 2023 World Cup run they wanted, but they still looked bejeweled in these Nike kits. Ahead of the tournament, Morgan attended Swift’s record-setting Eras Tour, which features “Midnights” tracks as its grand finale, and she had high praise for her uber-famous friend.

“She is so supportive,” Morgan said. “She’s all about women empowerment. We both share our favorite number, number 13, born the same year, in 1989. We’ve just been really supportive of each other’s careers.”

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Vivianne Miedema is missing the 2023 World Cup with an ACL tear. And as an observer, she is concerned about the growing number of injuries at the tournament and in women’s soccer overall.

The Netherlands star laid out the feelings she is going through as she watches this year’s World Cup, which have ranged from sadness to frustration to fear, she wrote Monday in an op-ed for The Athletic. Miedema tore her ACL in December in a match for Women’s Super League club Arsenal, but she had been advocating for a better solution to the injury problem in the women’s game even before her own ACL tear.

Already, the World Cup has seen one ACL tear – Haiti’s Jennyfer Limage went down against England in a match had to stop watching. To see other players tear their ACLs is “the hardest part of being injured,” Miedema wrote.

Many analysts and fans feared the worst when England’s Keira Walsh went down with an injury in the Lionesses’ next game. While Walsh avoided a tear, her knee injury still underscored the recent rash of injuries in the women’s game.

“It’s worrying that we live in a world where there’s a need to announce it’s not an ACL injury,” Miedema wrote in The Athletic. “Because so many players are out with ACL injuries, we think every player who goes down with a knee injury has one, too. That isn’t always the case. Not knowing the outcome keeps us all scared.”

Miedema pointed to the number of players already out with injuries, including the astounding number of players from the U.S. who are missing the tournament, from Becky Sauerbrunn to Mallory Swanson, Catarina Macario to Christen Press.

“Every time I watch women’s football at the moment, I’m waiting for the next big injury to happen,” Miedema wrote.

While she has been proud for her Arsenal teammates, including Australia’s Steph Catley, it is hard to realize that she and several of injured teammates “not there. You feel so proud – but so sad.”

FIFA and UEFA need to change the packed playing calendar – and take responsibility for the number of injuries, Miedema says. The workload is too heavy for players in a game that is becoming quicker, more intense and more physical. She also would like to see squad numbers grow internationally and domestically, and she would like to see more support from managers and clubs through increased player rotation and more medical staff.

“Before I got injured, I’d been playing every single game for my club or the national team for eight or nine years. It’s just too much,” she wrote. “One positive to being injured is that this is the first time in my adult life that I haven’t had the pressure of having to perform or be a leader.”

With the World Cup shining a spotlight, Miedema hopes the World Cup will make “stakeholders realize something needs to change.”

“To watch a World Cup with 10 of the best players out injured — either at the tournament or recuperating at home — is not a good advertisement for women’s football,” she continued. “From bitter experience, I know it’s even worse for the players themselves.”

Arsenal manager Jonas Eidevall believes the 2023 World Cup should have kicked off earlier in the year.

The tournament is slated to start on July 20, but the packed women’s soccer calendar places the premier tournament just before the start of the next European season. The quick turnaround means little recovery time for players.

Arsenal just confirmed its fourth ACL tear of the season. And while the club is looking at ways to improve, wider change is needed, Eidevall said. In particular, he pointed to the tight schedule as a factor.

“It is very evident from this summer that this World Cup should have been played earlier. It is evident,” he said. “That would have meant the players could finish the season, have some time off, prepare for the World Cup without so much time off they lose their fitness, they play the World Cup, then there is a gap so they have time off again and then we can start the Champions League qualifiers and the league openers.

“But they didn’t get it right, hopefully in the future they can do it better.”

His concerns echo those of his star forward Vivianne Miedema, who shared her concerns about the workload for soccer players in November – just weeks before she herself tore her ACL.

“I see a worrying pattern. The playing calendar for both the women and the men is simply too full,” she wrote. “Actually, it’s just a shame. We are in a world that goes on and on and there are few players who say anything about it. I do. We go completely crazy with the tax on football players and football players.”

Miedema took a break in November as a result of her schedule, which saw her play for the Netherlands national team in the Euros last July and then roll right into the beginning of the Women’s Super League season with Arsenal.

The calendar has only gotten more hectic in 2023.

Eidevall pointed to this summer’s schedule, noting that if Arsenal were to finish third in the WSL this season, they would enter into the Champions League qualifying round just 16 days after the World Cup final.

“That shows how bad the calendar is. We want to try to finish as high as possible in the table, we want to try to go into the Champions League and we need to do whatever necessary to get there,” he said. “But it highlights a very important issue, if you want to protect players and you want to have importance for the World Cup and the Champions League, but it is impossible for the clubs who are going to play in that playoff round.

“I think there are also qualifying rounds that happen during the World Cup. It really highlights the issues with the calendar, where really important stakeholders like UEFA and FIFA can’t schedule tournaments better to allow players time off.”

Recent reports have indicated that English clubs are pushing back at national teams’ World Cup preparations and will opt to release their players just 10 days before the tournament. The European Club Association has cited the increase in injuries and a concern about player welfare, with a goal to give players more rest time following their club seasons.

Many national teams had planned to start their training camps in mid-June, with the intention of traveling to Australia and New Zealand in early July to give their players time to get acclimated before games begin.

“There are bits that I think clubs can solve internally but there are a lot of things that require the whole world of football to cooperate, we need to do both,” Eidevall said. “Some parts are internal and things we can control, then there are things we need external cooperation with.

“For example, the playing schedule or the cooperation between clubs and national teams or how and when competitions are played and how the international match calendar is done. That requires governing bodies, clubs and national teams working together.”

Arsenal have suffered another blow, as Laura Wienroither has become the fourth player on the squad to suffer an ACL tear in the last six months, the club announced Thursday.

She suffered the injury during Monday’s Champions League semifinal loss. The 24-year-old Austria national team player joins Leah Williamson, Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema on the Gunners’ roster of ACL injuries this season.

“I’m going to miss every single second of not being on the pitch with this special team,” Wienroither said in an Instagram post. “I’m so proud to be a part of this group and to share experiences with these girls — on and off the pitch.

“I’ll fight like hell to return as soon as I’m ready to get back to following my dream in red and white. This team is really special… I think we can all feel it. Until that time, I’m Arsenal and Austria’s biggest fan.”

Miedema, who tore her ACL in December, posted in support of her teammates: “At least we will all be in the gym together.”

But she also added: “ACL group is full now. Please no more.”

A number of the game’s biggest stars have suffered ACL injuries in recent months, leading to concern over what many regard as an injury crisis in women’s soccer. Mead has called for more research into injuries in the women’s game, and Portland Thorns forward Janine Beckie – who is also sidelined with an ACL tear – echoed those sentiments and called for more resources for women’s teams.

Earlier this season, women’s health specialist Dr. Emma Ross told Sky Sports that women athletes “are up to six times more likely to have a non-contact ACL injury than their male counterparts.”

She added that just 6% of studies in sports and exercise science are done solely on women, which translates into a lack of research and education on women’s injuries.

While some researchers attribute the injury crisis to the physiological affects of the menstrual cycle, including joints becoming less stable during the cycle, there is not enough evidence to draw a link between the menstrual cycle and injuries, Ross said.

“So we do have some information about loose joints,” she said, “but what we don’t have is the end step of whether that really does increase the risk for injury in female athletes.”

Dr. Katrine Okholm Kryger pointed to soccer cleats being geared toward men’s feet as an injury risk factor, as men’s and women’s feet differ in shape and volume. Many cleat manufacturers have begun to develop a women’s specific cleat, which should be available for this summer’s World Cup.

Aresenal is in the midst of its own internal review after its spate of ACL tears, manager Jonas Eidevall said following Wienroither’s injury. Eidevall also called for external cooperation between clubs, national teams and their governing bodies.

“We need to look at the complete picture and see which factors we can control,” he said. “We need to look at that internally to see what we can do better in the future. Some parts are internal and things we can control, then there are things we need external cooperation with. For example, the playing schedule or the cooperation between clubs and national teams or how and when competitions are played and how the international match calendar is done.

“There are bits that I think clubs can solve internally but there are a lot of things that require the whole world of football to cooperate, we need to do both.”

Arsenal’s Champions League run ended in injury and heartbreak in Monday’s 3-2 semifinal loss to Wolfsburg.

The Gunners, who already have lost three players to ACL tears this season, saw defender Laura Wienroither stretchered off late in the second half with an apparent knee injury. And despite the raucous crowd of 60,063 at Emirates Stadium, a record for a Champions League match in England, they conceded the winning goal in the 119th minute of extra time.

Wolfsburg clinched the match and the 5-4 aggregate win on a cross off the foot of Pauline Bremer. The club also received a boost from the return of Alexandra Popp, who missed the first leg of the semifinal with a calf injury but scored off a header in the second leg.

Injury luck, though, has not been on Arsenal’s side this season. Beth Mead, Vivianne Miedema and Leah Williamson all have suffered ACL tears this season. Team captain Kim Little sustained a season-ending hamstring injury in the Champions League quarterfinal, and Caitlin Foord injured her hamstring earlier in April.

Wienroither added her own name to the growing injury list Monday. She entered the match in the 64th minute and exited 18 minutes later on a stretcher.

The loss ends Arsenal’s bid for the Champions League trophy, but the club remains in the running for the Women’s Super League title. With 38 points, the Gunners sit nine points back of first-place Manchester United with five matches left to play.