USA midfielder Catarina Macario to miss Olympics due to knee irritation

United States women's national team midfielder/forward Catarina Macario will miss the Paris Olympics this summer due to a minor irritation in her right knee, coach Emma Hayes announced on Friday.

She will be replaced by forward Lynn Williams, who was originally named as an alternate and participated in the Tokyo Games. Defender Emily Sams will be added as an alternate.

"She's devastated," said Hayes, who coached Macario at Chelsea. "It's not a long-term situation, just not going to recover in time.

"I'm absolutely gutted for Cat. She's someone who has worked hard within the last 12 months. She's really put in a shift to get there, but it's not to be."

This news is exceptionally heartbreaking given the long road to recovery Macario has been on. She tore her ACL while playing with former club Lyon in May 2022 and was unable to play for a year and a half — which included missing out on last summer's World Cup.

Macario, 24, made her valiant return to play during the SheBelives Cup in April — her first appearance for the USWNT in 641 days — and talked about how emotional coming back was for her.

"It just really felt like a dream," Macario said then.

"There were so many emotions there. I obviously knew that I had been working towards that for a while, but I think probably the biggest thing was getting over that mental hurdle that was like, ‘OK, I'm safe. I'm good to play again. I got this.'"

The USWNT faces Zambia in its first Olympics match on July 25. They'll round out Group B play with Germany (July 28) and Australia (July 31).

Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously wrote for Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. She is the author of "Strong Like a Woman," published in spring 2022 to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX. Follow her on Twitter @LakenLitman.