In a week that saw Canada Soccer confirm the departure of head coach Bev Priestman, there was more bad news for the Canadian women's team Saturday.
Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor revealed that veteran Canadian defender Kadeisha Buchanan has been sidelined with an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Bompastor made the announcement after Chelsea moved atop the Women's Super League standings with Saturday's 2-0 win over visiting Manchester City.
"I have sad news to share with you," said the French coach. "I didn’t want to talk about it beforehand as we just found out the results this morning, but she did her ACL after the Liverpool game (a 3-0 Chelsea win last Sunday). As I said, I'm really sad and I didn't want to talk about that situation before the game because maybe it would take all the focus from the game and I wanted my players to focus on the Man City game.
"Everyone in the club is so devastated about the news. She was performing really well. She is an important player for us, but now this is the situation. We are going to support her as much as we can — players, staff and the club. She's strong and she's OK."
With Chelsea improving to 7-0-0, Bompastor became the first coach in WSL history to start their tenure with seven straight wins.
Buchanan, a 29-year-old from Brampton, Ont., has won 154 caps for Canada, forming a formidable centre-back partnership with Vanessa Gilles.
She was the latest Canadian international to be sidelined this season by an anterior cruciate ligament injury. Utah Royals forward Cloe Lacasse was placed on the NWSL's season-ending injury list after rupturing her ACL and spraining her medial collateral ligament against Angel City on Oct. 20.
Canadian winger Liam Millar underwent surgery after tearing his ACL last month playing for Hull City against Burnley in England's second-tier Championship.
Canada Soccer announced this week that Priestman and assistant coach Jasmine Mander would not return in the wake of an independent report into the drone-spying scandal at the Paris Olympics. Analyst Joey Lombardi, also implicated in the scandal, resigned from Canada Soccer after he was sent home from the Olympics.
The sixth-ranked Canadian women are scheduled to play No. 13 Iceland on Nov. 29 and No. 19 South Korea on Dec. 3, with both games in Murcia, Spain.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2024
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
