The San Diego Wave and the U.S. women’s national team will be facing a nervous wait over the status of Jaedyn Shaw.
The 19-year-old star limped off with a leg injury in the Wave’s 1-1 draw with NJ/NY Gotham FC on Sunday night.
On a corner kick late in the match, Shaw appeared to get tangled up between two Gotham players. After attempting to play on, Shaw had to be taken off deep into second-half stoppage time.
Shaw walked off under her own power, but with a noticeable limp as she was replaced by Elyse Bennett.
After the game, Wave head coach Casey Stoney revealed that Shaw appeared to have an ankle injury, but had no further information.
“I’ve not had any update from the medical team,” Stoney said. “I’m sure she’s being examined [at the moment]. She came down on her ankle, it looked like. But no update on her as of yet. Hopefully she’s OK. She’s a big, important player for us.”
Should Shaw be forced to miss a significant period of time, it would be a devastating blow for club and country alike.
Shaw has quickly marked herself as one of the U.S, women’s national team’s biggest stars, becoming the first player to ever score a goal in each of her first five USWNT starts.
With the Olympics kicking off in just over two months, any kind of serious injury would jeopardize Shaw’s availability for her first major tournament.
A lengthy absence for Shaw would also be particularly cruel on the Wave, who are currently missing three USWNT players with injury: Alex Morgan, Naomi Girma and Abby Dahlkemper.
Sunday was a rough evening for the USWNT, as starting goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher also went down with an injury earlier in the night.
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