Trinity Rodman to miss USWNT camp with MCL sprain, hopes to return before NWSL season ends

Washington Spirit forward Trinity Rodman will miss the United States women’s national team’s friendlies against Portugal and New Zealand next week due to a grade 1 medial collateral ligament (MCL) sprain she suffered Wednesday during the Spirit’s 4-0 Concacaf Champions Cup victory over CF Monterrey Femenil.

She could still possibly return this year, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation.

Rodman underwent initial tests on Thursday, which revealed a first-grade sprain. The current outlook is for around three weeks of rehabilitation process before a re-evaluation, which would happen around the start of the NWSL quarter-finals. Sources were optimistic and wouldn’t rule out a return this season, depending on how the knee injury heals and how far the Spirit goes in the playoffs.

Spirit head coach Adrián González told reporters on Friday that the results were “the best case scenario” after Wednesday’s worrying tackle. Grade 1 MCL sprains are the least serious of the injuries category. Rodman was at the Spirit Training Center on Friday to begin his rehabilitation.

“An injury is not always a good situation, but it is not as bad as it could be,” González said. He did not want to give an official timetable. “Every player is completely different. We want to support her… as a human being, right now the most important thing is just to recover and see how she feels every day and try to help her as much as possible.”

The 23-year-old was called up to the U.S. squad by head coach Emma Hayes for the first time since April. She had already missed nine NWSL games this year due to a nagging back injury that had plagued her since her rookie season in Washington.

Hayes has not yet made a decision on his replacement. One option could be to remove a player from the recently announced U-23 team, which will train at the same location in Pennsylvania next week.

Rodman went down in the 37th minute of Wednesday’s match while confronting Monterrey defender Daniela Monroy. Rodman attempted a tackle that caused him to stay on the ground for several minutes. She was officially replaced in the 41st minute by teammate Brittany Ratcliffe. Rodman needed help leaving the field and eventually returned on crutches, a brace and her entire leg wrapped.

Rodman has enjoyed a recent return to form, winning NWSL Player of the Month in September and has scored five goals and registered two assists in 15 appearances this year. She scored the opening goal in the Spirit’s 1-1 draw against the North Carolina Courage on Saturday, which secured her team’s second place in the NWSL playoffs and home-field advantage. Washington hosts the Orlando Pride in a 2024 NWSL Championship rematch in its final regular season home game of the year.

“It’s obviously a situation that we don’t want to deal with, but I think this team has been through different adversities in the past and mentally it’s a team that we’re capable of dealing with any type of situation,” González said of the rotation around Rodman’s injury. “Fortunately, we put together a team with a lot of available players with a lot of solutions on the pitch. We can attack and defend in different ways, so we practiced different compositions.”

The USWNT will play three friendlies during the October international window: two against Portugal on October 23 and 26 in Philadelphia and Connecticut, and one against New Zealand on October 29 in Kansas City.