Forward Mallory Swanson tore her patella tendon in her left knee during the first half of the United States women’s national team victory against the Republic of Ireland. Her injury in Saturday’s 2-0 win was extremely devastating, especially since the World Cup is this summer.
In the 40th minute of Saturday’s game, Swanson took the impact from challenging against Ireland’s player, Aoife Mannion and immediately fell in pain, and was carted off.
Devastating as the loss of Swanson is, when it comes to positions, the USWNT has a huge amount of depth in its forwards. 18-year-old Alyssa Thompson replaced Swanson during Saturday’s match and on the USWNT roster for the remainder of training camp.
Thompson who plays for Angel City FC, became the youngest NWSL draft pick in league history and was the first pick during the draft earlier this year.
Thompson joins a group that includes Alex Morgan, Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, Ashley Hatch, Lynn Williams, and Megan Rapinoe, which are all players who could be in the mix for the World Cup roster.
Even though losing Swanson is very upsetting to her teammates and fans, it will not take away the chances of the USWNT becoming the first team to win three consecutive World Cups.
The USWNT announced the injury update Sunday. Currently, there is no estimated time as to when Swanson will return, but the injury she has will almost certainly rule her out for this year’s World Cup. The usual recovery time for a patella tendon tear is six months.
Swanson has been such an impressive player to watch in 2023, scoring seven goals in five games leading up to Saturday’s match. She was on a six-game scoring streak, which is tied for the fourth-longest streak by any player in USWNT history.
It is unfortunate for Swanson because her main goal this year was to become one of the greatest, after not making the roster for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Swanson has easily shown the world that she is one of the best, and it is unfortunate to watch this happen.
After the 2-0 victory, the team is back to training and preparing for another friendly match against Ireland this Tuesday in St. Louis. Both friendly matches are the last international matches before the USWNT Head Coach, Vlatko Andonovski selects the roster for the World Cup this summer. The 2023 World Cup is prepared to start on July 20th and will be hosted in Australia and New Zealand.