The year is now 2023, the World Cup is less than six months away and U.S. women’s national team head coach Vlatko Andonovski is still answering the question: When will midfielder Julie Ertz return to the team?
The latest media inquiry came last week, ahead of a pair of U.S. games in New Zealand, and Andonovski provided an updated version of the answer he has repeated for over a year:
“With Julie, we had a conversation, and obviously she needs a little bit more time to prepare before she even starts training with the team. We’re just excited to give her a little more space and time until she’s fully ready to join.”
The question of “when,” which was the phrasing posed to Andonovski, presumes the question is not “if.” But all available evidence suggests that Andonovski and the U.S. need to — and are — preparing for a 2023 World Cup without Ertz, arguably the most irreplaceable player from the 2019 World Cup-winning squad.
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Ertz last played for the U.S. nearly 18 months ago, in the team’s bronze medal-winning victory over Australia at the Tokyo Olympics. Eight months after that win, Ertz revealed she was pregnant, and she gave birth to her first child in August.
She has not indicated one way or another whether she plans to return to playing, and she has not been under contract with a professional team since late 2021. Even if she were to return to the U.S. team at the next available opportunity, the SheBelieves Cup in February — which is not something she or Andonovski have hinted — returning to the form that made her so important for the U.S. would likely take some time, more time than the U.S. has before the World Cup.
