United States women’s national team defender Naomi Girma is a fitness concern for the Concacaf W Championship later this month after her coach at Chelsea, Sonia Bompastor, ruled her out of the club’s upcoming fixtures.
The USWNT will face El Salvador in the quarterfinals of the Concacaf competition on Nov, 27, with the winner also securing automatic passage to the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
Girma has been unavailable for both Chelsea and Emma Hayes’ USWNT after suffering a muscle injury at the start of October. And Bompastor said Friday that that the 26-year-old, along with teammate Lauren James, is unlikely to feature in the team’s three games before the international break.
“I think [James] is good, but I don’t think we expect to see her in this block. That’s the same for Nay [Girma],” the French coach said. “She’s now more in advance, not far from starting again to train with the team. So both of them are doing good, but we won’t see them in this block with us.”
Chelsea face Women’s Super League (WSL) holders Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League and Liverpool in the WSL before the team breaks for the final international window of the calendar year.
Girma pulled out of the last international camp due to a muscle injury picked up while in training with Chelsea. Bompastor said she would be “unavailable for maybe a few weeks” at the time.
Girma has struggled with injuries since joining Chelsea in January 2025 from San Diego Wave in the first $1 million transfer in women’s soccer history. She scored her first goal for the club in the Champions League qualifiers against Real Sociedad in September, but is yet to feature in the WSL this season.
Girma only played in 10 league matches for Chelsea last season.
Hayes, who previously coached Chelsea, expressed her concern about Girma’s injuries last month, saying the USWNT was working with Chelsea to address the issue.
“This has happened too often and if we want her to be in a position to play games on a regular basis for club and country, I think we have to change some things,” Hayes said.
“Obviously I’m not in control of that. I’m not the club. But we are working closely with Chelsea to think differently about creating the right solutions because the player suffers. And I know she’s absolutely devastated.”
