Alex Morgan feels just fine as Portland enters an important stretch. (Photo Courtesy Portland Thorns FC/David Blair)
Portland Thorns FC forward Alex Morgan left Saturday’s 7-1 thrashing of FC Kansas City in the 78th minute on a stretcher, but she was walking after the game and is fine now as the Thorns enter a critical stretch.
Portland plays at Chicago on Thursday before hosting Boston on Sunday, a week that could see the Thorns rise as high as third place or drop all the way back to sixth. Finding that consistency will be key. So how do they build off of that record-breaking breakout over the weekend? Perhaps less is more.
“We’ve had pregame talks,” Morgan told reporters this week. “We’ve had meeting with the players, meetings with the coaches. We’ve had pump-up talks. But we kind of all just looked at each other and said, ‘enough with the talking. Let’s just go out there and say what we need to say on the field.'”
As for that right foot injury that forced Morgan out of Saturday’s game, she said it was all mostly precautionary, and she’s been training in full all week. Morgan says her right foot (not her left, the ankle which kept her out for seven months up until early June) went numb after one of her nerves was hit. After such a long injury, she’s understandably extra cautious now.
“Just having the foot injuries that I’ve had in the past, I wasn’t taking any chances, so at that point it was a little numb and I came off,” she said. “Probably 30 seconds after I came off, [the trainer] moved it around and I was like, ‘I’m fine.’ But it was a huge scare. With injuries now, I want to make sure that I am fine before going out on the field, just having the history that I have. But I’m good, and today we got after it on the field and I feel good. I’m ready to get back after it on Thursday.”
