Sam Mewis reveals recent knee surgery

Michael Chow-USA TODAY Sports

USWNT and Kansas City Current midfielder Sam Mewis has been battling a persistent knee injury for the last couple years. She last had surgery in 2021 and did not play in the 2022 season. She played a few minutes in the 2021 NWSL Challenge Cup, but has not played since. Mewis has been fairly quiet about her injury, mentioning a few times during her podcast Snacks. She's said that the process has been more complicated than expected and not something she's prepared to talk about publicly. Her co-host, Lynn Williams was also dealing with an injury for much of 2022, and they did discuss Williams' rehab a lot. However, Mewis was very quiet about hers. Today, Mewis made her first major statement about it yesterday afternoon, posting to her social media accounts.

The Kansas City Current have bought out Mewis's old contract and re-signed her on a 1-year deal through the 2023 season. This has allowed them to focus on her rehab and open up salary space for new players, like Debhina.

It has been kind of troubling to fans that there is no timeline for her return to soccer. This includes frustrations directed at Mewis's past coaches. In particular, Paul Riley. Mewis played under Riley for five years on the North Carolina Courage. Riley discouraged Mewis from rehabbing her injury earlier on in her career. While we can't say for sure, it doesn't seem unlikely that Riley created an environment for Mewis's injury to persist.

Mewis is likely out for the 2023 World Cup, which could be detrimental to the USWNT. She was instrumental to their 2019 World Cup victory and their 2021 Olympics run. Vlatko Andonovski has not been able to find another midfielder whose ability and playing style matches Mewis's. Now, he hasn't tried all that much variety in terms of a midfield lineup, as it seems like he was hopeful for Mewis to return in time.

All we can hope for now is a successful surgery and rehab so that Mewis can come back to soccer stronger than ever. We wish Sam all the best in her recovery.