United States Women’s National Team midfielder Lindsay Tarpley tore her right anterior cruciate ligament in the 75th minute of Saturday night’s 2-0 win over Japan and will miss this summer’s Women’s World Cup in Germany. She is expected to miss six-to-eight months.
This is the same ACL that Tarpley tore in the final game of the 2009 WPS season with the Chicago Red Stars. She slowly recovered from that and made a strong comeback in 2010 with Saint Louis Athletica and, more notably, with the Boston Breakers. Tarpley was recalled to the U.S. team in November and had scored two goals in just four appearances with the team in 2011. She has 124 all-time caps.
“Obviously, I’m extremely disappointed, but I believe that things happen for a reason and I know that I’ll grow and learn from this,” Tarpley said. “I had a long road back to recovery after my last surgery and one of my main goals was to get myself healthy and competing at a level that would give me the opportunity to make this World Cup Team. I have had the fortunate pleasure to be on a lot of great teams but making this roster probably gave me the most satisfaction of any team I have been on. I proved to myself that I could do it. It has always been an extreme honor to be able to wear the U.S. jersey and represent my country and even though I won’t be in Germany, I will be there in spirit and cheering on the team from home. I know they are prepared and going to do great.”
A replacement to the roster is yet to be named. Young midfielders Kelley O’Hara and Yael Averbuch seem to be the most likely candidates.
