Canada’s Women’s World Cup hopes took a physique blow Friday with information that Janine Beckie has been sidelined by a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her proper knee.
Beckie was taken off on a stretcher within the nineteenth minute of the Portland Thorns’ 4-1 dwelling pre-season win Wednesday over the U.S. girls’s under-23 group.
“Heartbroken is an understatement,” Beckie wrote in a Twitter put up Friday.
“Having labored so laborious in the course of the low season for what was set to be one of many greatest seasons of my profession, defending the title for Portland Thorns and naturally enjoying within the World Cup for Canada, being out for an prolonged time period is a troublesome tablet to swallow.”
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—@janinebeckie
The 28-year-old winger can have surgical procedure within the coming weeks to restore the season-ending harm, the Thorns mentioned in an announcement.
That guidelines Beckie out of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Olympic champion Canada, ranked sixth on the planet, is slated to kick off its World Cup marketing campaign July 20 towards Nigeria in Australia.
Beckie, who celebrated her one centesimal cap for Canada towards Brazil in Nashville finally month’s SheBelieves Cup, is among the first names on Canada coach Bev Priestman’s lineup card.
Beckie is ready to play quite a lot of positions, go at aim or ship a telling cross.
“She may most likely play proper again, proper wing, left wing, midfield, to be trustworthy,” Priestman mentioned prematurely of the Brazil recreation. “I truly assume she’s performed the [No.] 9 and goalkeeper.”
Beckie, after scoring twice, did seem in aim for Canada’s 5-2 win over Ecuador on the 2015 Pan American Games when ‘keeper Stephanie Labbe was despatched off.
“I believe Janine’s true soccer high quality is what makes her so versatile,” Priestman continued. “And then you definitely go and add her athleticism. She’s not solely contributing to this group on the pitch but additionally off the pitch. She’s grown in her management and is simply an unimaginable human being.”
Beckie, who earned her one hundred and first cap in a 3-0 loss to Japan in Frisco, Texas, within the SheBelieves Cup finale, has 36 targets and 17 assists since making her senior debut in November 2014 on the age of 20.
“There’s a protracted approach to go for Janine. I believe that is the thrilling factor,” Priestman mentioned on the SheBelieves Cup. “She most likely hasn’t reached her true potential but, albeit she’s had some unimaginable performances and been a key contributor to every little thing this group’s accomplished.”
Off the sector, Beckie is certainly one of 4 gamers representing the group within the ongoing labour dispute with Canada Soccer.
Beckie, captain Christine Sinclair, Sophie Schmidt and Quinn, who goes by one identify, appeared earlier this month earlier than the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on the House of Commons in Ottawa.
Beckie may nonetheless get to the World Cup, albeit not in her most well-liked function.
She earned kudos for her work as a TV analyst for TSN in the course of the latest males’s soccer World Cup in Qatar.
