Chelsea Ladies supervisor Emma Hayes believes Catarina Macario is unlikely to play for the membership till subsequent 12 months.
USWNT worldwide Macario joined Chelsea from Lyon over the summer season however has but to make her debut for her new facet. The 24-year-old sustained an anterior cruciate ligament damage throughout a Lyon sport in June 2022 and has not performed since.
When Macario, who can play as a ahead or attacking midfielder, signed a three-year take care of Chelsea in June, the membership stated she was making “good progress” in her rehabilitation from that ACL rupture.
Hayes — who will take over because the USWNT head coach on the finish of the 2023-24 season — left Macario out of Chelsea’s Champions League squad for the primary half of the marketing campaign earlier this week.
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“I don’t assume she’ll play this half of the season,” Hayes stated on Macario. “I hope and if she does, it’ll be a bonus. However I don’t assume the time she’s been out for we might take that danger.
“Whenever you’ve been out a very long time — this isn’t about me withholding, that is in regards to the recognition that with all the need on the planet, you’ll be able to put a participant on the grass with a knee historical past, and typically, if the knee blows up, you then have to come back again off of it once more.
“She had another points she needed to resolve. It takes a little bit of time to understand when you’ll be able to go more durable with them. As a result of she’s new to us I’m not as assured realizing these timelines as I might do Guro (Reiten) or Melanie (Leupolz).
“If she (Macario) makes it again earlier than Christmas, it’d be sensible, however in all probability my intestine tells me it gained’t occur this facet of Christmas.”
Hayes was unveiled because the USWNT’s head coach earlier this week, signing a deal that makes her the highest-paid coach in ladies’s soccer and ending a 12-year keep as Chelsea boss.
Macario, who gained two NCAA championships with Stanford College in school stage, has performed 17 occasions for the USWNT since making her senior debut in 2021. She additionally gained the 2021-22 Division 1 Female and Champions League titles with Lyon.
Chelsea host Liverpool on Saturday at Stamford Bridge trying to lengthen their unbeaten begin to the Ladies’s Tremendous League season. Hayes’ facet have gained 5 occasions and drawn as soon as of their opening six fixtures.
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(Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Pictures)
