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October 5, 2026
The midfield

Sam Coffey is off the Spain roster six days after Hayes brought her back

Sam Coffey was hurt on Sunday playing for Manchester City and came off the United States roster on Monday. Naomi Girma came off it last Thursday. Both were returning after missing June, and Gotham FC's Jaelin Howell, who has six caps, takes Coffey's place.

GL
Grant LombardOct 5, 20264 min read
Every call on this site goes on a public ledger and gets graded. The misses stay up.
Sam Coffey in the United States navy pinstripe shirt, hair pulled back, looking off to one side with a crowd blurred behind her, at the SheBelieves Cup match against Colombia on March 7, 2026.

Emma Hayes named 26 players on September 29 for two matches against Spain. Among them were Naomi Girma and Sam Coffey, both back after injuries kept them out of the June trip to Brazil. Neither had played for the United States since April 17.

Girma was off the roster two days later. Coffey came off it on Monday, October 5.

U.S. Soccer said Coffey "picked up an injury" on Sunday in Manchester City's 4-2 Women's Super League win over Arsenal, and that she "will remain at her club for ongoing assessment and rehabilitation." The release does not say what the injury is or how long it will keep her out. Hayes called up Gotham FC midfielder Jaelin Howell in her place.

Coffey posted about it on Instagram after the announcement, in words The Equalizer's Desiree Luo quoted: "Be back real soon." The photos with the post show her left foot in a boot, and Jonathan Tannenwald of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that she took a hit to that ankle during the match. Neither the club nor the federation has named the injury.

She started against Arsenal. In the 39th minute play stopped for about two minutes for an injury to her, by ESPN's match record, and she stayed on. She was replaced in the 70th minute by Laura Blindkilde Brown with the score 2-2, and City scored twice after that. The federation's release does not say when in the match she was hurt. She has played in all five of City's league matches and both of its Champions League matches this season. Sunday was her third start among the seven.

The June absence was a knee. Manchester City announced on May 15 that Coffey had undergone what the club called "minor knee surgery," without saying more about it, and that she would spend the summer recovering. Monday's reporting is about an ankle.

Spain changed its squad after the same match. Mariona Caldentey started for Arsenal and was replaced in first-half stoppage time because of an injury, again by ESPN's record. "I think it was her hamstring and it didn't look good, didn't feel good," Arsenal's manager, Renée Slegers, said afterward, in comments Daily Cannon reported. The Spanish federation took her out of its squad that night and called up Liverpool midfielder Natalia Ramos. Its notice gave no reason. (Emily Fox played 81 minutes at right back for Arsenal and is still on the American roster. One of those three is due in camp.)

Anyway.

Hayes said what this window was for on the day she named the roster. "This camp will be about reestablishing connections after a long break, looking at a few players who haven't been with us this cycle, and putting on the best performances we can in front of packed stadiums," she said in the federation's release. Her next sentence: "Of course, our dual focus will also be on our final preparations for the World Cup qualifying tournament."

The long break is the four months since the second match in Brazil, on June 9. For Girma and Coffey it is longer than that. Girma was ruled out on October 1 with a muscle injury. She and Coffey both last played for the United States against Japan on April 17, Girma as a starter and Coffey as a substitute, and the last time Hayes started the two of them together was six days before that. After Spain, the next matches on the American schedule are the qualifying tournament in November.

So two of the connections get reestablished there, or later.

What Hayes has instead is six midfielders. Lindsey Heaps has 178 caps and Rose Lavelle has 122. Mallory Swanson, listed with the midfielders, has 103 and has not played for the United States since the 2024 Olympic final. Claire Hutton and Lily Yohannes have 20 caps apiece. Hutton is 20 years old and Yohannes is 19. Howell has six.

Coffey was the starting defensive midfielder in the run to that Olympic gold medal. Hayes played both matches in Brazil without her and used a different answer in each. ESPN's lineups list a 4-1-4-1 both times, with Hutton as the one defensive midfielder in the 2-1 loss on June 6 and Yohannes in that spot in the 1-0 win on June 9. (One of each, then. It settles nothing.)

Howell is the newest name on the list, in the sense that she was not on it until Monday. She is 26. She made her debut in November 2020, has one international goal, and last played for the United States on December 1, 2025, as a late substitute against Italy. What she has done this year is play. She has started all 27 of Gotham's NWSL matches, by ESPN's lineups, and finished 22 of them. Lavelle and Tierna Davidson, both on this roster, are her club teammates.

Hayes talked about Howell on Sunday, in New Jersey for Gotham's match, a day before the call-up. Heaps, Hutton, Yohannes and Coffey "are the four, I think, that lead the way," she said, in comments reported by Melanie Anzidei of The Athletic, and Howell would "be just outside of that with a core of probably three or four others." One of the four is out now, and the one just outside is in.

She is also the second replacement in two days. Utah Royals defender Kate Del Fava was called up on Sunday to take Girma's place, which makes Monday's list the third version of the 26 since September 29.

Spain is Saturday at Audi Field in Washington, and then the following Tuesday in Chester, Pennsylvania. Coffey will be in Manchester.

Sources: U.S. Soccer release on Jaelin Howell's call-up, October 5, 2026; U.S. Soccer roster release, September 29, 2026; U.S. Soccer release on Kate Del Fava's call-up, October 4, 2026; U.S. Soccer roster release for the June matches in Brazil, May 27, 2026; Desiree Luo, The Equalizer, "Sam Coffey ruled out for USWNT October matches, replaced by Jaelin Howell," October 5, 2026; Jonathan Tannenwald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Sam Coffey joins the USWNT's injury list ahead of the showdown with Spain," October 5, 2026; Seth Vertelney, USA Today, October 5, 2026, on the photographs; Melanie Anzidei, The Athletic, October 5, 2026, for Emma Hayes on the midfield; Daily Cannon, October 5, 2026, for Renée Slegers; ESPN match record and lineups for Manchester City against Arsenal, October 4, 2026, and for Manchester City's other Women's Super League and Champions League matches this season; Jeff Kassouf, ESPN, "USWNT, Man City star Sam Coffey to begin rehab after minor knee surgery," May 15, 2026; Jeff Kassouf, ESPN, "Naomi Girma off USWNT squad due to muscle injury," October 1, 2026; Spanish federation squad notice, October 4, 2026; ESPN lineups for the United States, March to June 2026, and for Gotham FC's 2026 NWSL matches.

Correction, 2026-10-13

Mallory Swanson had played for the United States after the 2024 Olympic final. She came on for Lindsey Horan in the 61st minute of a 3-0 win over Argentina in Louisville on Oct. 30, 2024, per U.S. Soccer's match report, and that was her last U.S. match before this window.

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On the record

Called Shots →
MissedSep 19, 2026

Naomi Girma is on the field for at least one minute of a competitive Chelsea first-team match played on or before October 4, 2026. Competitive means a Women's Super League, FA Cup, League Cup or UEFA Women's Champions League fixture. Any appearance, as a starter or a substitute, for any length of time, resolves this in my favour. Being named in a squad and not used does not.

AGAINST, drafted first, and it is strong enough that I nearly did not file. Chelsea are about to play six matches in fourteen days by their own head coach's count, and Bompastor named rotation as the reason she was glad to have three players back. The bar in this claim is one minute of one match out of roughly six. A fit international centre back who cannot get a single minute out of that schedule is close to a statement, and managers do not usually make statements about players they have just got back. She also came through both Champions League qualifying legs as a starter three and four weeks ago, so this is not a player with no recent football in her legs. FOR: she has now been available for two matches this season and played neither. September 5 was a rotation call and Saturday was not a rotation call, because Bompastor had declared her available two days earlier and then used the other two returning players instead. Melvine Malard came on in the sixty-third minute and scored; Nathalie Bjorn came on in the eighty-seventh; Girma did not move. That is one manager choosing between three returning players on one afternoon, and the choice went two ways out of three. The defence is also not asking for help: three league matches, seven points, and the only goal Chelsea have conceded in the league went in off one of their own. And the two fixtures already fixed inside this window are a Champions League league-phase opener and a home London derby against Arsenal, which are the two matches of the six a manager is least likely to rotate. Restatement check: content/uswnt/_takes.json holds one open row, Grant Lombard's on Catarina Macario's return date for San Diego, which is a different player, a different club and a 2027 resolve date. I filed a row on Girma with the September 14 pool note, claiming she would not be in the October 10 matchday squad against Spain; it is NOT in content/uswnt/_takes.json and content-drafts/uswnt/_takes-pending.json did not exist when I opened the directory this morning, so it appears to have been dropped rather than merged. Flagged to the desk in the handoff. This row is a different claim in any case: a club appearance inside two weeks, not a national-team selection three weeks out.

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