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United States women’s national team No. 1 and Chicago Red Stars starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher left Sunday’s National Women’s Soccer League match with an apparent leg injury, adding to a list of injury concerns for the USWNT just over two months before the start of the Olympics.
The Red Stars led the Utah Royals 2-0 in the 58th minute when Naeher came off her line to contend a through ball played to Utah forward Ally Sentnor.
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Naeher pulled out of the challenge at the edge of her penalty area and appeared to grab her left thigh before walking away gingerly.
Naeher continued playing, but less than a minute later she dived to the ground slowly for a shot and stayed on the ground. She received medical attention and was replaced a few minutes later by Mackenzie Wood. Naeher walked off the field without assistance.
“No [update], I’m leaving it to the pros — the medical staff — so I don’t know what’s going on yet,” Red Stars coach Lorne Donaldson said after his team’s 3-1 victory on Sunday.
Naeher is a two-time World Cup champion and has largely been the USWNT’s starting goalkeeper for the past seven years.
She has started seven of eight USWNT games this year. She helped the team win the Concacaf Gold Cup and the SheBelieves Cup just over a month apart.
Naeher made three saves in a penalty shootout and converted a kick of her own on two separate occasions — both against Canada — to help the USWNT advance and win those tournaments.
Several USWNT players have suffered injuries in recent weeks.
Forward Alex Morgan (ankle) and defender Tierna Davidson (thigh) remain sidelined after sustaining injuries on the same weekend of NWSL play in late April.
USWNT defenders Naomi Girma and Abby Dahlkemper, who are also teammates with Morgan for San Diego Wave FC, are both battling thigh injuries that have kept them out of recent matches.
Forward Midge Purce, who was on the USWNT’s Gold Cup roster, tore her ACL in late March.
Multiple NWSL coaches have publicly denounced the Gold Cup’s placement during the league’s preseason, and many continue to point to it as a reason for the ongoing injuries to international players early this NWSL season.
“Again, we are paying the consequences of a tournament that should have never happened,” NJ/NY Gotham FC coach Juan Carlos Amorós said after Purce’s injury.
Incoming USWNT coach Emma Hayes is set to take over her first training camp at the end of the month ahead of a pair of June friendlies against South Korea.
Which players she will have available for that roster remains unclear.
Naeher had played every minute of the season to date for the Red Stars before her injury.