Current forward Temwa Chawinga wheeled out of game with right leg injury in upset loss to Dash
Kansas City Current forward and Malawi international Temwa Chawinga was wheeled off the pitch with a right leg injury in the first half of her team’s away match against the Houston Dash on Saturday evening. The Dash won 1-0 to hand the No. 1-ranked Current their third loss of the season and keep Houston’s playoff hopes alive.
In the 25th minute, with the score 0-0, Chawinga lied down on the pitch far from the action. She appeared to grip her upper leg, an expression of distress on her face. A Current trainer rushed onto the field and two minutes later carried Chawinga off field with the help of Kansas City fullback Izzy Rodriguez.
Chawinga was taken to the locker room in a wheelchair and was replaced by Canadian international Nichelle Prince.
“We don’t have, exact update on her,” Current head coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “She’s in (an) MRI now as we speak. Once you get the results from MRI, we’ll know a little bit more. It’s not her knee, it’s just the upper leg.”
When asked about his decision to play Chawinga, Andonovski clarified that while she was listed as questionable on the league’s availability report, it was related to a knee injury and not the upper leg injury she sustained in the game.
“She felt very good. There was a game that she didn’t play because we thought the game posed a risk for her to be on the field,” he said, referring to the match against the Washington Spirit on Sept. 13. After that, Andonovski added, “she played, I think, one half of the game after that.”
Chawinga was only meant to play 60 minutes on Saturday, Andonovski said, but “obviously something happened. It’s a freak accident.”
Chawinga, 27, is the reigning NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner, and has been on track to repeat both honors this season. She leads the league with 15 goals in 22 appearances for the Current, who are favored to reach the NWSL championship on Nov. 22. They clinched the league shield faster than any team in NWSL history, secured home field advantage in the playoffs and set a new league record for most points earned in a season with 62 as of publication.
And while the Malawi women’s national team is yet to feature in an international competition, Chawinga’s performances with the Current have earned her global accolades. She was nominated for a Ballon d’Or this year and was ultimately ranked 17th. On Friday, she was nominated for a Confederation of African Football (CAF) women’s Player of the Year award along with her sister, Tabitha, a striker who plays for OL Lyonnes. Both were called up to the national team for the upcoming window, which begins next week.
The Dash, who faced a must-win scenario Saturday, started the game on the front foot despite only registering six shots all game, half of which were on target.
In the 69th minute, Dash winger Yazmeen Ryan delivered a low, driven cross into the Current’s penalty box. Dash midfielder and Austrian international Sarah Puntigam dummied the ball. Ryan Gareis connected sweetly with the ball on her left foot, sending it across the face of the goal and into the upper right corner, far out of reach of goalkeeper and Brazilian international Lorena.
“Temwa’s (Chawinga) shoes are hard to fill,” Prince said during the postgame press conference. “Coming in, I just wanted to play my role and be able to make an impact on the field. And, yeah, I think that even before coming in, we had chances and when I came in, I think we still got more chances, and we just, honestly, there was some unlucky moments and some moments where we just needed to be more clinical, a little bit more ruthless in front of goal.”
The loss doesn’t change the Current’s fate, but it offered lessons to take back to Kansas City. “I think having a lot of chances, sometimes you think, ‘OK, there’s gonna be more, but I think we just needed to put them in the back of the net early and, kind of like, yeah, take some pressure off of us,” Prince said.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Houston Dash, Kansas City Current, NWSL, women's sports
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