The NWSL has a clear injury problem, which will inevitably increase as the league expands and seasons grow longer. Players across the league, regardless of profile or position, are missing more games due to injury. The NWSL has noticed and has dedicated time and funds to research on this topic, and outside sources are helping as well, including Michelle Kang’s Kynisca Innovation Hub.
However, speaking practically, more and more players are going down with long-term injuries, and this trend has no end in sight. This hurts the players, their teams and the league as a whole, and it impacts national teams that call these players up. Right now, USWNT is missing a handful of players due to injury — Catarina Macario, Olivia Moultrie, Emily Sonnett and Naomi Girma headline that list.
With three game weeks remaining in the NWSL regular season, attention is naturally turning toward the playoffs. But the injury lists also offer a preview of 2027: Which players could return next season, and how much better might their teams be with them back? A team-by-team look reveals where the biggest boosts could come.
Houston Dash
According to Spotrac, Houston is the team that has lost the fewest games to injury. Makenzy Robbe is the only injured player for the Dash currently, and given that she was injured in April, she should be available early next season (though she is a free agent, so she may not be available for the same squad).
Robbe was part of the Dash’s early success, including scoring the game-winner against the San Diego Wave in March. In 274 minutes, she had some good individual numbers, especially on the defensive side of the ball in Houston’s scheme, as well as having positive chance creation stats and averaging .48 npxG per 96 minutes.
It’s safe to assume, as a 32-year-old striker, she wouldn’t have sustained that production over a whole season, and that’s what makes the evaluation here difficult. She has been replaced on the roster by younger forwards, who, while not marquee talents, have been productive on the margins (see Miljana Ivanovic vs. the Washington Spirit).
So, should Robbe be re-signed? It’s hard to argue for it to happen with Ivanovic and Clarissa Larisey on the roster. Whether Robbe will even be on an NWSL roster next season actually remains an open question.
Seattle Reign
Seattle has no players on the season-ending injury (SEI) list at the moment. Lynn Biyendolo is on maternity leave and Jess Fishlock is likely retiring when the season ends, but the roster is likely to look fairly similar in February 2027. Unless, of course, there is a coaching change. Laura Harvey has not seen great results executing her style of soccer recently, so this may be an adapt-or-die moment, either for her or for GM Lesle Gallimore. That possibility remains speculative.
NJ/NY Gotham FC
Gotham is third-from-bottom on the games missed to injury chart as of writing — but that’s about to change with the injuries to Bruninha and Jordynn Dudley just after the NWSL roster freeze. It was some brutal luck to lose two key contributors during a Shield push, but Gotham’s recent signing spree means they have backups available. Dudley should be back by February, as her injury is a fractured foot and the timeline on those is weeks, not months, but Bruninha is going to miss the World Cup and possibly all of next season.
Emily Sonnett, who has been injured since July with a patellar tendon rupture, will likely be a game-time decision for the World Cup based on the traditional return timeline for that injury. She will almost certainly return next year sometime, but the worry is that her comeback will not give her enough time to return to full minutes load by May, when Emma Hayes will need to start making tough calls on the USWNT roster.
Worryingly, Sonnett was also not at her best before the injury; her passing improved from her 2025 numbers, but only slightly, and most of her other stats, particularly fouling and interrupting G+(as measured by American Soccer Analysis), decreased significantly. It’s possible the age curve and basic regression have caught up with her. Hayes has already begun building new center-backs into the national team — Kennedy Wesley being the main beneficiary — so Sonnett may have taken her last bow with the USWNT, though she will still likely be a serviceable NWSL starter for a bit longer.
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Denver Summit
Denver’s two ACL injuries occurred at very different times in the season, to Nahikari Garcia (July) and Jasmine Aikey (March), respectively. Assuming they recover properly, Aikey will likely return by the beginning of the NWSL season. Garcia is more likely to target the World Cup break as her return date. Camryn Biegalski also missed part of the season with injury.
However, will it really matter? None of these three players are key to Denver’s plans, with Garcia being the only player with NWSL minutes this season — 12, to be exact. Just 12. Biegalski has NWSL experience on bad Chicago teams but didn’t play this season, and Aikey was a hyped prospect but was injured before making an appearance. Denver has since signed multiple contributing forwards in Yuzuki Yamamoto and Yaz Ryan, and the team is also banking on the talent of Naomi Eto, the Cameroonian who starred at WAFCON.
With a near-playoff-caliber team this season, will Garcia and Biegalski continue to earn wages from a team that probably doesn’t need them? Even though both are under contract for 2027, they could be traded or transferred to free up roster spots for contributors. But Aikey will likely get her opportunity, as she was a standout in college, winning the Hermann Trophy for best college player in 2025 with Stanford. She remains under contract for 2027 with a mutual option for 2028.
Portland Thorns
The Portland Thorns are very well-set for next season on the injury and roster front. After an injury crisis to finish last season, they have had almost every player return to the lineup, save for Julie Dufour, whose ACL recovery is taking longer than expected but should be healed by the beginning of 2027. They have an extremely talented crop of forwards — Dufour included — who score goals for pleasure heading into next season. Their only long-term injury this season was unfortunately a big one, however, with Olivia Moultrie tearing her ACL in August. She is certainly out for the World Cup and is a big loss for the USWNT and the Thorns, having been playing at an MVP level for the first half of the season.
Five goals and five assists for Moultrie set her career-high in total goal contributions over a single season, despite playing only 16 games. Pre-injury, she seemed likely to grow that total as more Thorns returned to the lineup, such as Morgan Weaver and Caiya Hanks. The Thorns will certainly miss her early next season, as her abilities as an attacking midfielder allowed the rest of the Thorns midfield (Nina Nijstad, Cass Bogere, and Jessie Fleming) to try to fill the defensive void left by the transfer of Sam Coffey. This is one of the most impactful injuries on this list, and will be felt in the standings next season.
North Carolina Courage
The Courage are hard to evaluate from an injury perspective. They have three SEI-d players, but only one will likely be back for the start of 2027, and that is the player that contributed the least: Sydney Schmidt. Schmidt has a lot of potential as a teenager just getting started in the NWSL, especially in partnership with the also-injured Lauryn Thompson. That said, potential means nothing if you cannot stay healthy, though there is not enough data to label these players as injury-prone yet.
The other two long-term injuries that should come back next season for the Courage are Maycee Bell, who went down this fall with an unspecified shoulder injury, and Payton Crawford, who tore her ACL. Crawford is probably this team’s best player on the right wing when healthy, and she contributed effectively this season after leaving Portland. Her return should have a positive impact early next season, if a 9–12 month ACL recovery timeline holds. With Crawford forming the semi-serious dragon next to Ijeh and Ashley Sanchez and a midfield aging into their primes, North Carolina should compete for the playoffs next year as long as they can continue to win the winnable games and maybe convert a few of this season’s losses into draws.
Boston Legacy
The Legacy are another team with a low volume of injured players, but a decent amount of missed games, implying that the few injured players have missed a lot of time. That’s backed up by their Spotrac data, where they have two SEI’d players and one that’s been on the d-45 list for most of the season.
The D-45 participant, Kaká, started the first two games this season and recently made a sub appearance on October 3, but in between, she has been out injured. It’s incredibly unfortunate, because she was picked to play a key role in Filipa Patao’s system. Instead, that role of right center back in Boston’s 3-back has been played by Bianca St-Georges, who has turned into a discipline magnet this season.
Kaká’s skill set is that of a traditional talented center-back and could conceivably have swung several games that Boston lost by playing St-Georges out of position and/or St-Georges being red-carded. The counterfactual is impossible to prove, but a fully healthy Kaká could play substantially more next season and improve Boston’s defense, both statistically and on the field. She has played in Patao’s system before, at Benfica, and did well there, so it’s not a stretch to suggest that she can successfully translate to the NWSL if she’s healthy.
The other two major injuries suffered, to Fauzia Najjemba and Chloe Ricketts, are not impactful heading into next season. Ricketts will be a good player for some team someday if she ever actually gets minutes, but it’s doubtful that team will be Boston. Meanwhile, Fauzia doesn’t fit Patao’s scheme all that well, but might have some upside if she can beat out Ella Stevens and Amanda Allen for sub minutes. Or, she might be able to play wingback on the right, opposite Sammy Smith. That’s basically speculation, though, since she doesn’t have enough NWSL minutes to determine much of anything.
Another significant injury is to starting goalkeeper Casey Murphy. It’s a PCL tear, which means she’s likely to be out for part of next season, even though Boston Legacy PR says she’ll be back by February. That timetable appears optimistic. If she is out for longer, it will likely require Boston to sign another starting keeper, as Laurel Ivory and Hannah Stambaugh do not currently look like the foundations of a high-quality goalkeeper room. Ivory has been less-than-effective in her limited minutes, and Stambaugh has yet to establish herself as an NWSL starter.
While no injury is welcome, this situation could prompt Boston to reconsider its goalkeeping options. Murphy has been consistently bad for the last several years, and worse than ever in the 2026 season. Signing a keeper to transition Murphy into a backup role is probably the smartest move GM Domènec Guasch could make going forward.
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Angel City FC
Angel City has not had a ton of injuries this year. Two big ones, though, were Jun Endo re-tearing her ACL and Hina Sugita doing the same back in March. The team has been performing admirably without them, though, weathering the firing of Alex Straus to find themselves in sixth at this point in the season.
Next season though, what does Sugita’s return bring to the Angel City squad experiencing a youth movement in midfield? The emergence of Maiara Niehues and the play of Taylor Suarez and Carina Lageyre have brought nothing but positives, and Ary Borges and Ally Sentnor also have played well. Is there room for Sugita to play her usual role? Can she displace one of the young talents on her return? It’s possible, especially if there is a Tiernan-esque sophomore slump from Suarez, but that seems unlikely.
Endo is a more complex case, as she is certainly one of ACFC’s more dynamic and inspiring wingers when healthy. She’s also still only 26, and the prospect of a Chilufya/Sveindis/Endo front three is very interesting. That is obviously very health-reliant, and a second ACL tear after the first took so long to come back from is daunting. Angel City has open roster spots, and they may search the NCAA ranks for more productive young talent to serve as backups on the wings, but when Endo comes back, she’ll likely be the starter. Sarah Gorden’s expiring contract presents another question for the club.
Washington Spirit
The two players on the SEI for the Spirit are both likely to be back by the beginning of next year, with Deb Abiodun having had time to recover from her hip injury and Kate Wiesner returning from an ankle fracture. Both players are not regular starters for a deep Spirit team but contribute effectively off the bench on a regular basis. With all being equal at the season’s start, Abiodun in particular should receive quality minutes at the defensive midfielder role, assuming no players are re-signed by the Spirit before this is published. Casey Krueger returning from maternity leave may disrupt the balance of power at the left back position and cost Wiesner minutes, but her offensive contribution is enough to get her on the field at some point, so her role should remain secure.
San Diego Wave
Yet another team with an early MVP candidate on injured reserve, with Dudinha having been placed on the SEI back in June. It’s possible she’s back and playing by the World Cup break, assuming her recovery goes well, which would likely place the Wave as Shield contenders yet again. And if Cat Macario finally makes her first San Diego appearance in relief of Trinity Byars next year, the Wave will be a goal-scoring machine, able to stretch back lines width-wise to allow runners from midfield easy access to lanes toward goal.
As for the Wave’s defense, Kristen McNabb has been one of the better passing defenders in the NWSL alongside Kennedy Wesley, and is under contract for 2027. This is good because Trinity Armstrong is recovering from her third knee surgery in three years and probably won’t be ready to play until after the World Cup break (and is still a teenager to boot!) Learning behind McNabb another year is the best thing for her development at this stage, giving the Wave a solid 2027 platform as well as keeping an eye open to the future. The Wave have arguably the most contributions from under-22 talent in the league, and it makes sense for them to take things slow with their injured players so they can keep playing well into the 2030s.
Utah Royals
The Royals are another team where their long-term injuries have not impacted their season too much, with only Alex Loera and KK Ream having taken their places on the SEI list. Loera has been there since 2025, and the Royals midfield has been able to get along without her in that timeframe. Loera is only 27, so she likely could return and contribute, but it’s unlikely she takes over a starting role after the quality play of Ana Tejada.
Ream is still very young, and while this injury may have paused her development, she will likely be back with the youth national team in short order, as her injury occurred in March. Even if she doesn’t play much for Utah right now, she’s still a very highly rated prospect and shows Utah’s forward-thinkingness, which, for an NWSL fanbase that suffered through a pair of rough seasons before this year’s jump in quality, is a very positive sign. While Utah have had 92 total games missed due to injury, sitting at sixth in the league, none of these knocks have slowed them down. Utah’s monster season has been built on quality, yes, but injury luck as well.
Bay FC
Bay will be in need of some massive upgrades to their backline after the 2026 season, with Kelli Hubly, Abby Dahlkemper, and Emily Menges all on expiring contracts. None of those three players inspire much confidence as defenders at this point in their careers, anyway.
That said, two such upgrades will come internally, as Alyssa Malonson and Caprice Dydasco will presumably both return to the squad to fix the gaping holes that Bay have at the fullback spots. Dydasco is not technically an injury recovery, as she was put on maternity leave in March, but her return will regardless help a squad that was playing Sydney Collins, Jenna Nighswonger, and Maddie Moreau at fullback at various points.
Malonson is arguably the bigger returner, though — she’s a fringe USWNT fullback at her best, and is six years Dydasco’s junior. Her 2025 numbers were excellent, and if she reverts to form, Bay will have a lockdown defender in the lineup in a league that is growing ever-speedier. Don’t discount the impact level of a talented fullback. With Bay having plenty of young talent in midfield and a pair of youthful forwards in Agostina Holzheier and Alex Pfeiffer, it’s time for Bay to make upgrades at the back if they want to challenge for playoff spots.
Racing Louisville
With Savannah DeMelo re-entering the Louisville lineup just before the October international break, there are no longer any injured players for Louisville. Now it’s time for them to add some actual talent over the winter break, because, as it stands right now, they are using zero international roster spots and their entire lineup is built on less-than-stellar college players. Also, their best player wants to leave and their owner is threatening to relocate them. It is not a good situation in Louisville, even if the squad is healthy.
Chicago Stars
Chicago presents an equally bleak picture. Chicago has one player that will make their return at some point in 2027 — Jordyn Huitema. Their other SEI-d player, Natalia Kuikka, is on an expiring contract. Unfortunately, that’s also true of several other Chicago players, meaning yet again, they’ll have to fill holes with college players. It’s possible Vlatko Andonovski can find some gems, but this is a multi-year rebuild process guaranteed.
Huitema actually contributed some scoring before her concussion and subsequent ACL tear, but that tear occurred in June, meaning she almost certainly won’t return by the first month of the season. With virtually no other goal-scorers (Swanson obviously excluded), there is not much to like about this roster — they don’t even have a second goalkeeper behind Katie Atkinson. How Andonovski fills those gaps will determine whether Chicago can avoid finishing last for a third consecutive season.
Orlando Pride
At the beginning of 2026, the Pride were missing a whole bunch of players to injury. At this point in the year, they have all recovered and played significant minutes for the club, to the point where their SEI list is empty heading into 2027. Their free agents in need of re-signing is a different story — there are very many, and most of them are key contributors to the Pride’s success. Kerry Abello, Summer Yates, Oihane Hernandez, Julie Doyle, Angelina and Marta are just some of the players that are not under contract for 2027, according to Spotrac. With an interim coach and several open roster spots already, what do the Pride do to avoid major regression from a season where they already missed the playoffs?
Kansas City Current
The NWSL is a better league when Alana Cook is playing, and she should be back for the Kansas City Current in 2027. After suffering a bad knee injury in 2025, she missed all of this year. The Current have several solid NWSL-caliber defenders that took her place — Gabrielle Robinson and Elizabeth Ball filled in capably — but Cook is better by far, and the prospect of her playing alongside new signing Maeve Nyadjou is especially intriguing.
Mary Long and Clare Gagne, both also injured, should return to play very minor roles. It’s Cook’s injury that put KC at the top of the Games Missed List, and her comeback will provide a strong foundation for Chris Armas’ tactical nous, even if his euphemisms and metaphors need work. As long as Kansas City signs or even simply re-signs a defensive midfielder, they should be a playoff team again in 2027.
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