United States defender Naomi Girma will miss Chelsea‘s League Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium on Sunday through injury, Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor confirmed.
Girma, women’s soccer’s first million-dollar player, suffered an apparent calf injury 59 minutes into her Chelsea debut against Brighton on March 2.
“So Keira Walsh, Naomi Girma, Guro Reiten and Maelys Mpomé will not be available for the game at the weekend,” Bompastor said in her pre-game news conference on Thursday.
“We have been assessing Naomi and I think we will take it week-by-week with her.”
Keira Walsh, another January signing, has also missed Chelsea’s last two games.
“Keira is not too far from joining the group. It was just a little bit too short to be ready for this weekend,” Bompastor added.
“Maelys is the same as Naomi. We have been assessing her and we are taking it week-by-week.
“With Guro, it will be a little bit longer. We still have a small chance to see her before the end of the block but I am not 100%.”
The 24-year-old Girma joined Chelsea from the San Diego Wave FC in January for a reported fee of £900,000 ($1.1 million). That deal surpassed the previous world-record fee of $788,000 that Bay FC paid to sign Zambia striker Racheal Kundananji from Madrid CFF last year.
Bompastor gave a positive update on another U.S. international, Mia Fishel. The forward has been out of action since suffering an ACL tear in February of last year but has recently stepped up her comeback.
“Mia was in the squad for the last two games with the first team and I just didn’t feel it was a great moment for her to come in,” Bompastor said. “But she had the opportunity to play 45 minutes with the under-18s and I think it was something really positive for her and for us.
“I think having these 45 minutes will bring her more confidence and coming into these big games, we will see. She may have opportunity to come in. She feels ready mentally and physically so we will see what happens.”
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
