A little more than a year ago, Alex Morgan felt out of the national-team loop. This was an unsettling position for the star American forward, who’s scored 115 goals—the fifth-most in U.S. history—during her international career. She’s a player who, along with Megan Rapinoe, has been the face of the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) for more than a decade.
But Morgan didn’t perform at her usual level at the pandemic-marred 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Spending 35 days away from her then one-year-old daughter, Charlie, taxed her mind. The Americans fell to Canada in the semis and won bronze.
Morgan did not attend the last national-team training camp of that year. She wasn’t on the roster for the first few camps of 2022. She’d have to prove her worth all over again. But at 32, not 22.
Read more at TIME Magazine.