Catarina Macario will miss Paris Games, replaced by Lynn Williams on USWNT roster

Macario suffered a torn ACL in her left knee in June 2022 while playing for French club Olympique Lyonnais and spent nearly two years away from the field, missing the 2023 World Cup. In March, she returned to club play with England’s Chelsea, where she was coached by Hayes and scored a goal in her first game back. She played in two U.S. matches this past spring, recording an assist against South Korea in June.

“I’m absolutely gutted for Cat, someone I’ve worked hard with in the last 12 months,” Hayes said at a news conference. “She’s really put in a shift to get there, but it’s not to be.”

Macario trained with the team this week but had some irritation leading up to camp. It is not a “long-term” injury situation, Hayes said, and Macario will return to Chelsea for treatment.

“I will be supporting the team every step of the way and the girls are ready,” Macario wrote on Instagram.

Defender Emily Sams will fill Williams’s spot among the four U.S. alternates.

FIFA confirmed Thursday that Olympic players who suffer minor injuries during the tournament can be temporarily replaced by an alternate and return to the official roster later in the tournament, a change from the typical hard rule of limiting rosters to 18 players.

“I always viewed [the roster] as 22, and with the rule changes as such, absolutely nothing changes. What does change is that without Cat, I have to think about some permutations for the team, which I’ve already reflected on,” Hayes said. “For us, it’s about now looking toward that and making sure that everybody else knows what those adjustments might be.”

Macario, who played limited minutes in 2021 as the Americans won a bronze medal in Tokyo, figured to play a key role during this year’s Olympic campaign. She has eight goals in 19 appearances, though the majority of her U.S. caps came before her 2022 injury. Macario twice won the Hermann Trophy as college soccer’s top player and scored 29 goals across all competitions during two seasons at European powerhouse Lyon.

Williams, 31, is the NWSL’s all-time leading scorer and has made 63 appearances for the United States. She has recorded 18 goals and 12 assists, but much of her career since her international debut in 2016 has been spent on the periphery of the core U.S. squad.

The Gotham FC forward was also originally named an alternate for the 2021 Olympics and was elevated to the full squad after rosters were expanded. In her first start at the Tokyo Games, she had a pivotal goal and an assist in the United States’ quarterfinal win over the Netherlands.

“Everybody here understands we all have our individual goals and we have our individual wants but at the end of the day soccer is a team sport,” Williams said. “You want to be a part of this. You want to be able to push this team and take your special attributes and qualities and apply them onto the team. In the past, mine has been an alternate, and I have been able to come in and make a mark, and hopefully the same thing happens for these Olympics.”

The Americans are seeking their fifth Olympic gold medal and first since 2012. They will play two send-off games before heading to Paris — the first Saturday against Mexico at Red Bull Arena, the second Tuesday against Costa Rica at Washington’s Audi Field.

Olympic play begins July 25, when the U.S. women face Zambia in Nice. The United States will also play Germany (July 28) and Australia (July 31) in the group stage of the 12-team tournament.