U.S. women’s national team pair Alex Morgan and Lindsey Horan made a brief statement to media on Wednesday addressing the ongoing controversy surrounding midfielder Korbin Albert.
Albert was forced to apologize last week after fans discovered that her TikTok account had either shared or reposted a host of anti-LGBTQ+ content. The 20-year-old also appeared to like an Instagram post celebrating Megan Rapinoe’s injury in last year’s NWSL championship game.
The midfielder was named to the SheBelieves Cup squad, with the USWNT set to play Japan on Saturday before facing either Brazil or Canada on Tuesday.
Albert’s presence has created a number of questions around how the USWNT would deal with the situation. In a brief statement, two of the team’s leaders said they were both saddened by her actions and that internal conversations among the team had taken place.
“Al and I just want to address the disappointing situation regarding Korbin that has unfolded over this past week,” Horan began.
“We’ve worked extremely hard to uphold the integrity of this national team through all of the generations and we are extremely, extremely sad that this standard was not upheld. Our fans and our supporters feel like this is a team that they can rally behind. And it’s so important that they feel and continue to feel undeniably heard and seen.”
Morgan continued: “We stand by maintaining a safe and respectful space, especially as allies and members of the LGBTQ+ community. And this platform has given us an opportunity to highlight causes that matter to us.
“It’s something that we never take for granted and we’ll keep using this platform to give attention to causes that are important to us. It’s also important to note we’ve had internal discussions around the situation, and that will stay within the team. But one thing also to know is that we have never shied away from hard conversations within this team.”
Neither Morgan nor Horan took questions about the situation. Mallory Swanson would later decline to answer a question, saying that the team would allow the statement from Morgan and Horan stand on its own.
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