The U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team’s Sydney Leroux has announced that an unexpected, but blessed, event will keep her off the field during the upcoming 2016 Olympics in Rio.
Leroux and her husband Dom Dwyer have announced with a post via Instagram that they will be having their first child. As Leroux wrote, “Surprise! My plans have changed for this summer.”
Leroux had planned to play in the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Tournament Feb. 9-21 in Texas and many expected she could earn a slot for the Olympics. But now she’ll miss most of the 2016 season due to her pregnancy.
According to Fox Sports the player’s pregnancy throws one more wrinkle in her career as she was out for most of the 2015 season because of an ankle injury.
Leroux is the second U.S. women’s national player to be sidelined for the season due to pregnancy. Amy Rodriguez is also sitting out the 2016 season awaiting the birth of her second child.
The U.S. women’s team is in the midst of a complete overhaul after a long list of notable players have now ended up out of contention for one reason or another. With the retirements of Abby Wambach, Shannon Boxx, and Lori Chalupny, the pregnancies of Leroux and Rodriguez, as well as injuries for Lauren Holiday and Megan Rapinoe, U.S. coach Jill Ellis has a lot of rebuilding to do.
Further, the once solid striker team has been whittled from five down to two. With Wambach retiring, and Leroux and Rodriguez out for her pregnancy, that leaves only Alex Morgan and Christen Press still available to play.
The team is still making waves, though. Last week the World Cup-winning U.S. Women’s National Team was named the 2015 Sportswomen of the Year by the Los Angeles Sports Council.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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