Fishlock injury dampens weekend – Equalizer Soccer

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Week 5 saw the a fascinating return to play for NWSL. After a newsy week, last year’s finalists came out firing, the Royals quietly moved up the table, and the Wave and Summit play one of the games of the year.

Here are 11 thoughts from the weekend. We’ll do this every Monday following National Women’s Soccer League match weeks. Some points will be factual, some will be opinion based. And some will just be random statements or observations.

Let’s dig in.

I – Fishlock injury looms over all

Jess Fishlock began the week announcing her retirement from soccer at the end of the season. She ended it in a Seattle hospital after getting hit with a shot in the penalty area during the Reign’s 3-0 loss to the Royals. She immediately called for the trainer after going down and never attempted to get up. Her left leg was put into an air cast before she was stretchered off the Lumen Field pitch.

Reign coach Laura Harvey did not have any information about Fishlock’s condition but agreed it “didn’t look good.” The 39-year-old Welsh international is the only player to appear for the same club in all 14 NWSL seasons. She has been on the Best XI five times and was voted 2021 MVP.

I don’t speculate on injuries but certainly share the concern that we may have seen her final moments on a soccer field on Sunday. Stay tuned for updates.

Meanwhile, it was already 3-0 when Fishlock went off — it was 1-0 after 50 seconds — in what was an uncharacteristically atrocious performance from the Reign. Following their other egg, the loss in Portland when the Thorns spent much of the game two players down, it was Fishlock who told the media the team needed to take a long, hard look in the mirror. They followed up with a seven-point-in-three-game stretch in Spokane. The response to this one, at least in the short-term, will have to come without her.