Injuries have tested Gotham FC throughout a demanding campaign that has ushered the Bats across the globe.
The reigning NWSL champions have been beset by injuries during the first third of the expanded 30-game NWSL regular season schedule.
Captain Tierna Davidson, star midfielder Rose Lavelle, emerging attacker Jaedyn Shaw, right-back Bruninha, 2025 NWSL Rookie of the Year Lilly Reale and experienced defenders Emily Sonnett and Mandy Freeman have all missed portions of the season.
Further complicating matters are the absences of defender Kayla Duran and midfielder Taryn Torres, who were both placed on the season-ending injury list due to ACL injuries.
Torres has been unavailable since suffering a torn left ACL in training on September 14, 2025, while Duran’s season was ended when she sustained a right ACL injury on April 4, 2026, away to the Kansas City Current.
How Injury Issues Have Stretched Gotham FC’s Depth
These myriad of challenges have been set against a grueling itinerary. It’s been full steam ahead for Gotham since January preseason training in Cádiz, Spain, spent in preparation for the inaugural FIFA Women’s Champions Cup, which saw the Bats finish the tournament in third place.
Despite the hectic schedule and bumps in their path, Gotham currently sits in fifth place in the league standings with 15 points gained through nine NWSL matches.
On top of all this, Gotham will soon defend their 2024-25 Concacaf W Champions Cup title in Pachuca, Mexico, in the tournament’s semifinals on May 20 against Club América Femenil. A victory would place Gotham in the May 23 final against the winner of Washington Spirit and Pachuca Femenil.
Thankfully for Gotham, Davidson and Shaw are both fully back up to speed. Saturday’s 1-1 home draw against Boston Legacy FC marked Davidson’s first 90-minute appearance since she suffered a season-ending knee injury on March 28, 2025.
There’s also been recent encouraging developments on the injury front. Sonnett made a 26-minute substitute appearance on Saturday, and the hamstring injury that kept Lavelle out of the contest isn’t serious, according to head coach Juan Carlos Amorós.
“In terms of the severity, it’s not very bad,” Amorós said during Saturday’s post-match press conference. “She is already working on the recovery, so that’s good.”
Yael Averbuch West on Duran’s Season-Ending Injury: ‘Everyone Was Devastated’
Gotham FC general manager and head of soccer operations Yael Averbuch West discussed how the club has handled the wave of injuries in the final installment of a four-part exclusive interview with South Ward Central.
The loss of Duran has been challenging for the club to navigate, especially at a previous juncture of the season when Davidson was on a minutes limit and Reale, Bruninha, Sonnett and Freeman were either unavailable or on minutes restrictions in return to play protocol.
“Everyone was really devastated for Kayla, but at the same time excited about her future progress in the game,” Averbuch West told South Ward Central. “It’s always very unfortunate to have a season-ending injury with Kayla. Kayla was progressing so well for us. We’re really excited about her as a player — and we still are. She’s going to come back stronger than ever.
“But it certainly presents a puzzle. Unfortunately, injuries are part of the game. We’ve had season-ending injuries in past seasons, and I really pride ourselves not just on the strength of our roster and our star power but also on the depth and the adaptability of the roster.”
Supporting Players Through the Highs and Lows
Recently, the NWSL and National Women’s Soccer League Players Association (NWSLPA) have partnered together on Project ACL, a global initiative focused on reducing ACL injuries.
“Fortunately, I never dealt with that particular injury,” Averbuch West said. “It’s not an experience that I can speak to on a personal level to the players. Unfortunately, we’ve had a few players with ACL injuries at our club over the past few years. Hopefully, what I can communicate and try to communicate is that I have such a profound respect for what the players need to go through and how hard they push themselves and the various challenges that can crop up as a professional, including coming back from a long-term injury, coming back from a short injury, losing your starting spot, starting for the first time and being nervous.
“All of the things that are part of the journey as a professional, I’ve experienced many of them, and I don’t take lightly what we ask of our players. They have the hardest job in the world. We all have hard jobs, but they by far have the hardest job. We ask a lot of them, and what they do is so impressive on a daily basis.”
In addition to being a general manager, Averbuch West is also a morale manager along with Amorós and the club’s technical staff, which includes mental performance coach Eugene Wentworth. Together, they help guide players through the highs and lows of women’s soccer.
“I try my best to be able to communicate the respect and the understanding I have for the various challenges that they go through and overcome so gracefully throughout the season,” she detailed. “Part of my job is to help remain even keeled when good things happen, bad things happen to individuals and with the team – my job is to show up and steady the ship and say we’re going to be okay. We’re going to get through this. It’s all part of the journey and the task at hand. So I try very hard to do that. It’s not easy. It’s a very emotional sport with team results, dynamics and individual situations.”
Navigating NWSL Roster Rules and Salary Cap Restrictions
Then there’s the matter of the salary cap, roster limits and the NWSL’s injury provisions.
The 2026 NWSL salary cap was set at $3.5 million per club and pushed to $3.7 million after revenue sharing was factored in. That number expands to a possible $5.2 million once $500,000 in allocation money, with up to $1 million additional cap space due to the High Impact Player (HIP) rule.
“The game is really understanding those rules and building a roster that can be adaptable,” Averbuch West stated. “Adaptability is key. The challenge and the puzzle that I get to focus on a daily basis is how do you given the salary cap, given the roster rules — how do you construct the most competitive roster possible with the proper balance of depth and versatility?”
NWSL and its clubs do not disclose player-by-player salaries and full team payrolls. In a scenario where Gotham is maxed out at $5.2 million in total salary, the club can still sign an injury replacement if all of the following criteria are satisfied: player(s) being placed on a long-term injury/illness list, a roster spot is officially opened, and the replacement signing fits within salary cap limits.
Why Adaptability Remains Central to Gotham’s Player Recruitment
Another hurdle for NWSL clubs is a lack of reserve and youth teams that facilitate squad depth.
“Without having a true pipeline and eventually a true second team where we can have player movement and things that are in the future of the game, those are all really big challenges for us to be able to construct and maintain a roster that is absolutely top competitiveness in the league, which is our objective at all times,” she explained.
All of these factors require long-term planning, which Averbuch West detailed in parts two and three of our series.
“We do recruit versatile players,” she stated. “It’s a huge benefit to our club to have players who can play in multiple spots. The players who we want to bring in are all smart players and can figure it out. The way we play is very fluid. The players, regardless of their starting role, end up in different roles on the field.”
It’s said that only the strong survive. Gotham’s ability to weather injuries while competing across multiple competitions to remain at the top of the women’s game is the result of constant evolution and years in advance planning.
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