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.

Sweden veteran defender Magda Eriksson is hanging up her international boots to focus on her health, with the 32-year-old officially announcing her retirement from her national team on Sunday.

Eriksson will continue competing at the domestic level for her German club, Bayern Munich.

The longtime captain sat out the most recent international window due to a head injury, watching as world No. 3 Sweden fell to No. 1 Spain in the two-leg 2025 Nations League semifinals.

"It's by far the toughest decision I've ever made," Eriksson said in her social media announcement. "But I'm listening to my body and mind instead of my heart."

"I've landed in the fact that unfortunately it's a decision that has to be made."

After an 11-year career with the Swedish senior national team, Eriksson retires as a two-time Olympic silver medalist, earning those podium finishes in Rio in 2016 and at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games.

Often leading Sweden through major tournaments where early domination dissolved into a third-place finish, Eriksson also helped her team eke onto the World Cup podium in both 2019 and 2023.

"It is heavy news," said Sweden head coach Tony Gustavsson after Eriksson announced her international retirement, calling her "one of our most important players for a long time."

"[Magda's] professionalism, courage, and heart have left a strong mark on the national team," he added.

Chelsea FC's £1 million gamble is paying dividends, as USWNT rising star Alyssa Thompson continued her goal-scoring momentum for the six-time defending WSL champs on Sunday.

The young forward found the back of the net in the ninth minute of the Blues' 1-1 Sunday draw with Liverpool, solidifying her status as a decisive attacking threat for her new club.

"You can see how much talent she has and the quality she brings to the team," Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor said of Thompson earlier this month. "She's improving game after game, becoming more connected to her teammates, and understanding the way we want to play better."

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Thompson left NWSL side Angel City for Chelsea on a then-record £1 million transfer fee in early September, with the 21-year-old going on to notch three goals and one assist in four matches across both WSL and Champions League play.

"Being able to play with players that are the best in the world is an amazing opportunity," said the striker. "I want to learn, grow, and develop a lot. I feel like Chelsea is such an amazing environment to do that in."

Beyond individual accomplishment, Thompson's success underscores Chelsea's depth as they continue to hunt domestic and continental honors on a now-34 match WSL unbeaten streak — while also looking to potentially draw more USWNT stars away from the NWSL.

Women's professional baseball has landed a home base, with Front Office Sports reporting on Monday that the newly formed WPBL will play the entirety of its 2026 debut season at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.

The incoming league prioritized a neutral venue without an existing baseball team to house its four inaugural clubs — New York, Boston, LA, and San Francisco — for its first campaign, with barnstorming games also planned for each team market.

"Our sport is for everybody," WPBL co-founder Keith Stein told FOS. "It's for middle America, everybody. We thought, 'Our teams are on these two coasts, it would be good to be in the middle of the country.'"

Founded in 2024 as the first professional women's baseball outfit in the US since 1954, the WPBL will hold its first-ever draft on Thursday, with the league's four teams drawing from a pool of 120 eligible players.

The WPBL recently fielded an oversubscribed Series A investment round, telling FOS that they're closing a $3 million raise with another round planned ahead of its August 2026 season-opener.

Each 30-player team will operate under a $95,000 salary cap for the first year, with the league also covering living costs throughout the seven-week season as well as giving players a percentage of sponsorship funds.

How to watch the first-ever WPBL Draft

The 2025 WPBL Draft kicks off at 8 PM ET on Thursday, with live coverage streaming across the league's Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels.

Las Vegas Aces boss Becky Hammon spoke her mind last week, telling CNBC Sport that the WNBA might need "a change in leadership" for the league's CBA talks to successfully progress.

"I just think [player relations] might be too fractured at this point, but we'll see," Hammon said, while also noting that she's had only limited interactions with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

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Citing Engelbert's "private conversations...with individual players — or lack of the conversations," Hammon described the commissioner's current relationship with players as "rocky" while describing her widely criticized leadership style.

"I don't know if she can ever regret, retract, and get that traction back from those conversations," the Aces boss posited.

"When the players speak, people need to sit up and listen," she continued. "I think [Engelbert is] sitting up and listening now."

Hammon also voiced support for Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier after the five-time All-Star described the WNBA as having the "worst leadership in the world" in her now-viral 2025 exit interview.

"I completely agree with Napheesa that the players should be making more than coaches," the Las Vegas sideline leader — who publicly earns seven figures per year — continued. "They're due for a huge increase in salary, and it's got to be something that is sustainable. That's the biggest thing you got to remember, that this league is still a young league."

Ultimately, while the 2025 WNBA season is over, CBA concerns loom large over the league's current offseason and 2026 campaign, leaving Hammon and others looking to avoid a lockout as the November 30th extension deadline nears.