Rapinoe, Ertz, Lavelle Cleared for USWNT World Cup Opener

The U.S. Women’s National Team is at full health heading into its opening match of the World Cup in New Zealand against Vietnam.

Rose Lavelle, Megan Rapinoe and Julie Ertz all will be available for the match, which will be played at 9 p.m. EDT Friday night, according to coach Vlatko Andonovski.

“Everyone on the team was healthy and available for play,” Andonovski said, per The Athletic. “Some players are on limited minutes, but everyone from a health perspective, from a medical perspective is healthy.” 

In Lavelle’s case, she’s been dealing with a knee injury over the past few months but appears ready to go.

“Rose is really good,” Andonovski said, per The Athletic. “She’s trained with the team for three weeks and trained with us off and on a little bit before that. We’re not going to force a lot of minutes from the very beginning, but we’ll ease everything up as we move on.”

As for Rapinoe and Ertz, they’re fully healthy, but there may be an easing of minutes for Rapinoe as she bounces back from a hamstring injury. Ertz suffered a sprained knee ligament and gave birth last year.

“They’re both ready to play,” Andonovski said. “Like I said from a medical standpoint, everybody’s available. From a minutes management, Julie is 100%, whereas Megan is in the same boat as Rose. Her minutes are going to grow as the tournament goes by.”