Rose Lavelle was one of several U.S. women’s national team stars who joined Gotham FC as marquee offseason additions.
But unlike Tierna Davidson, Emily Sonnett and Crystal Dunn, the playmaker has not yet stepped on the field wearing the Gotham crest.
Lavelle hasn’t played since the W Gold Cup, where she featured in all six of the USWNT’s matches as it lifted the regional title.
The 28-year-old has been sidelined with what the NWSL availability report calls a lower leg injury, missing the Challenge Cup and all three of Gotham’s regular season games thus far.
As her absence stretches past a month, Lavelle gave an update on her progress during a media event in New York marking 100 days until the Olympics begin.
“I’m doing good — I’m hoping I’ll be back in the next couple weeks,” Lavelle said in quotes published on the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“It’s frustrating to start the year off with an injury, just because I feel like you come off preseason and you’re revving to go, so it’s so annoying.”
Last month, interim USWNT coach Twila Kilgore called Lavelle’s absence from the SheBelieves Cup roster “mostly a preventative measure in terms of taking care of her health.”
With the Olympics kicking off soon and Hayes facing some tough decisions to cut her roster down to just 18 players, Lavelle knows time is of the essence.
“The strength of our team is there in so much depth, so unfortunately that means really good players are going to get left off too,” she said. “And I think for all of us, it’s just about being ready for whatever role is given to us, embracing that, and looking to put it into a collective picture so that we can go into the Olympics ready to go.”
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