Abby Dahlkemper

Emma Hayes will manage her final game with Chelsea on Saturday before she turns her attention toward the United States women’s national team. A growing list of USWNT injuries will be a main concern for Hayes.

There is good news and bad news for U.S. fans at the moment. The bad news is that big names are missing time due to injuries. The good news is that the Olympics doesn’t start for another two months and there’s still time for those players to recover.

Here’s a list of USWNT injuries that could impact who Hayes calls up for two friendlies vs. South Korea in early June.

The United States women’s national team will go on a month-and-a-half hiatus following a spring that saw them lift the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Cup and their seventh SheBelieves Cup. We’d say we’ve seen enough for a USWNT Olympic roster prediction.

Incoming USWNT head coach Emma Hayes will need to narrow the roster to 18 names for the Paris Olympics. She’ll have watched both tournaments and have a solid idea of who deserves to go.

With Women’s World Cup qualifying three weeks away, USWNT players are peaking at the right time. Alex Morgan is unstoppable, Sophia Smith and Mal Pugh are lighting up the scoreboards and Rose Lavelle is literally flying.

The 2022 Concacaf W Championship is just 26 days away, so USWNT manager Vlatko Andonovski has to be close to knowing the final 23-player squad he'll name for the tournament in Mexico — which serves as qualifying for both the 2023 World Cup and 2024 Olympic Games.

But he's not showing his hand yet.

On Monday, Concacaf revealed the provisional rosters for the W Championship, so while the final 23 will have to be selected from this list, the provisional roster for the USWNT includes an all-encompassing 59 names.

In September, the USWNT crushed Paraguay in back-to-back friendlies by a 17-0 aggregate score. This past week, the USWNT crushed Uzbekistan in back-to-back friendlies by an 18-1 aggregate score. While the September matches felt mostly a waste of time, the April matches felt instructive and useful, for both Vlatko Andonovski’s plans moving forward and U.S. fans trying to figure out those plans.

If you just look at the opponent, the USWNT’s April friendlies against Uzbekistan are likely to be fairly drab. Matches against the 48th-ranked team in the world in Ohio and Philadelphia, on the face of it, don’t really kindle much enthusiasm. But the April USWNT roster makes it clear: This is the final chance for some young players to earn a spot on the team at World Cup and Olympic qualifying this summer in Mexico.