Alex Morgan hopes to recover in time from a left MCL sprain to play in an August 24 NWSL semifinal. (Photo Copyright Linehan Photography for The Equalizer)
Alex Morgan is still day-to-day ahead of Saturday’s National Women’s Soccer League semifinal between Portland Thorns FC and FC Kansas City. The Thorns forward sprained her left MCL in the opening minutes of an August 7 loss to the Boston Breakers.
Morgan was supposed to miss 2-4 weeks after being stretchered off at Dilboy Stadium and evaluated back in Portland. Speaking on a national conference call ahead of Saturday’s match, Portland coach Cindy Parlow Cone said Morgan’s status still hasn’t been decided:
We don’t know yet if she’s going to be able to play in the game or not. She is still day-to-day. Each day in training she is doing a little bit more. Obviously we’re not going to sacrifice her health for the game. We’re going to travel with her to Kansas City and she’ll be day-to-day once we get there as well. Obviously not having Alex we lose a little bit of a dynamic in our attack for sure. But I’ve been very pleased with the way that we’ve played in the past two games without her. We’ve had players step up. We’ve had players do a lot of very good stuff. We’ve been a very good team the last two games in a different system. At this point we’re not sure which system we’ll play in. It’s the million dollar question I don’t have an answer to yet.”
Morgan vowed to play only if she is “100 percent,” but has indicated on several platforms that she wants to play. The Thorns are 1-0-1 since losing that August 7 game in which Morgan was hurt.
