On Naomi Girma’s situation
Naomi Girma is among the finest central defenders in world football. She is also currently in the midst of a high-profile battle against recurring injury.
The objective of this article is simple: To investigate and develop greater clarity and understanding of how the situation developed to this point. This will be based on researching events and times, data, experience, and statements from relevant players and staff.
Debunking the “injury-prone” myth
Firstly, here is a quick rundown of Girma’s availability for league play during her time with San Diego Wave previously, and now Chelsea. The “availability” percentage relates to league games played, some of which were off the bench. It’s not perfect but it’s a simple overview of her playing capacity throughout her club career.
- San Diego 2022: 24 games, Girma played 21 (87.5% availability)
- San Diego 2023: 23 games, Girma played 20 (87% availability)
- San Diego 2024: 26 games, Girma played 20 (76.9% availability)
- Chelsea 24/25: 11 games, Girma played 5 (45.5% availability)
- Chelsea 25/26: 22 games, Girma played 10 (45.5% availability)
- Chelsea 26/27: 6 games, Girma has played 0 (0% availability)
Now, some more background information and debunking the “injury-prone” myth I’ve seen in some online spaces.
Girma has, like all players, suffered injuries at various points in her career. She had an ACL tear before turning professional, and a thigh injury on international duty with the US Women’s National Team in April 2024 that briefly affected her availability with San Diego. Overall, however, between 2022 and 2024 she was a model of consistency, and so it would not be accurate to label her “injury-prone”.
The year prior to getting injured and joining Chelsea, 2024, was also the year Girma played every game in a compressed Olympic schedule (6 games in 16 days) for the US on their run to Gold, and also the year that her club, San Diego, had repeated turf issues that led to them playing their final home game in another stadium over safety concerns. These may have represented increased risk of injury for all involved but did not result in any confirmed issues for Girma.
Girma suffered a calf injury somewhere between December 2024 and January 2025, though it is unclear exactly how or when this happened. She played for the US on 3rd December 2024 in a friendly against the Netherlands but there was no mention of an injury until she was ruled out of the USWNT’s January 2025 camp with a “minor calf issue”.
Chelsea were evidently not discouraged by this injury and signed Girma for a world-record transfer fee in January 2025, parading her in front of the fans at Stamford Bridge before a game against Arsenal. While the player was already injured, it became Chelsea’s responsibility to properly plan and monitor her recovery and return to play once they signed her.
Girma did not debut for Chelsea until March 2025. She was immediately reinjured in-game, and has suffered several recurrences of calf injuries in the year-and-a-half since.
Transfer complexities
Girma’s 2024 NWSL campaign finished in early November. She then played for the USWNT on 30th November and 3rd December against England and Netherlands respectively. On 26th January 2025, she signed for Chelsea. Somewhere in the weeks between the international break and signing for Chelsea, Girma picked up a calf injury.
San Diego returned for pre-season training in late January 2025, with their NWSL campaign kicking off on 16th March. Had Girma stayed, this is the routine she would have been set up for. As it transpired, she joined a Chelsea side in the middle of their season, chasing multiple trophies.
Let’s summarise some of the complexities here:
- The player is leaving one club for another in a different country with different weather, culture, and all sorts of “settling-in” social and personal adjustments to be made off-field.
- The player is joining a new team, a new coach, so may require time on-field to adapt to a different training methodology to the one she was used to.
- The player is joining a team in a different league, with greater disparities between teams at the top and the rest, possibly a different tactical emphasis and associated physical demands.
- The player is joining a team that often plays two games in one week at the height of competition, which is not something she was used to previously.
- The player is joining at a time when she would normally be in pre-season, building up for the season ahead, rather than integrating into an ongoing competitive schedule.
- The player is recovering from an injury that needs to be carefully managed on an individual basis whilst also being reintegrated into a new team environment.
Competing goals
“Calf injuries are really critical. I had one at the beginning of the 2023 season and it took me three to almost four weeks to get back at the beginning of the year, and they’re really delicate.”
Ali Krieger on ESPN FC, March 2025.
It’s an assumption, but let’s say Girma’s initial calf injury was of a similar scale and timeline to Krieger’s. That would put her out of play until February 2025 at the very earliest.
It’s also worth mentioning that Girma arrived at Chelsea off of a full club season with San Diego, and was probably due a break of some sort.
Ultimately, Girma made her debut for Chelsea on 2nd March 2025. However, having gone to ground off the ball, pointing to her calf area, she was substituted after 58 minutes.
After the match, her teammate Millie Bright said:
“It was a tough game to come into but…I think she did great. It was nice to finally have her on the pitch. There was a lot of pressure for her make the return but she is delighted to get that debut.”
There is a fine line between player wellbeing and performance that every manager is trying to balance. Girma was a world-record transfer upon joining Chelsea, who were in the middle of a WSL title race and other challenges domestic and European. This is perhaps where the “pressure” Bright refers to comes from: at once recovering from injury, and helping the team compete.
Chelsea knew about Girma’s calf injury prior to signing her, so they must have monitored the player vigorously and in all sorts of ways, almost certainly including subjective self-assessment, before reintroducing her to full training and games.
At the same time, Girma’s injury on debut makes it clear that there was at least a misconception of her readiness to play. This is not to blame anyone; merely to highlight this was not some freak accident, a la one Scottish defender’s facial injuries post-microwaving his eggs.
Recurrence?
After her Chelsea debut ended prematurely, Girma sat out international duty at the SheBelieves Cup in February 2025, focusing on returning to fitness with her club during that break. She returned for Chelsea on 23rd April, with her minutes being managed, and went on to play a part in their end-of-season, including the FA Cup final win over Manchester United.
All seemed back to normal and Girma had a full pre-season to rest and recuperate. She took part in Chelsea’s pre-season friendlies against Ajax and Milan, but was missing for her club’s opening game of the 25/26 WSL season, with head coach Sonia Bompastor stating: “She had a small issue with her calf during the week. We’ll assess her next week to see how long it will be. Hopefully not too bad.”
This injury led to Girma missing the first eight WSL games of the 25/26 campaign, and the first two games of Chelsea’s 25/26 Champions League schedule. Essentially, she missed circa two months of competitive action, and was therefore also unavailable for the USWNT friendlies versus Portugal and New Zealand in late October.
Competing perspectives
Girma eventually returned to play on 11th November against St Polten, and enjoyed a good run until March/April 2026. Unlike her previous two calf issues with Chelsea, this was the first instance where the narrative became confused regarding Girma’s fitness, her club, and her national team.
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Chelsea’s perspective of Girma is a record-breaking signing, a significant investment and a key asset in their hunt for major trophies. They want her to be fit and ready every single week. The USWNT perspective of Girma is their key defender, someone Hayes once described as the best defender she’d ever seen. They want her to be fit and ready for next year’s World Cup.
It’s essential that both sides communicate adequately not only in their own competitive interests, but for the sake of the player’s wellbeing and career.
In March 2026, Girma reported for USWNT duty having enjoyed a good run in the Chelsea team and playing the full 120+ minutes in their FA Cup fifth round win over Manchester United. She played two of her national team’s three SheBelieves Cup fixtures, rested in the middle game. However, she subbed off at half-time of her second game, against Colombia, on account of “calf tightness”. This substitution was reported as a precautionary measure, not because of injury.
Sidenote! I had calf tightness once. It turned into an injury because I ran on it. Limped home mid-run. Severe pain turned to discomfort fairly quickly. And yet, over six months later I still had some “awareness” of the injury, and occasionally felt a smaller, but sharp, pain in my calf suggesting that, no, it wasn’t fully healed. So my experience of a clearly quite minor calf injury was still a complex one where actual recovery took longer than initially expected.
One week after Girma’s SheBelieves substitution over “calf tightness”, Chelsea played Manchester United again, this time in the League Cup final. Girma was not in the team. Afterwards, Bompastor said: “I think Naomi Girma picked up a small injury in her calf”.
Girma was out, but only for two weeks, returning for Chelsea against London City on 21st March. She then started against Arsenal and Aston Villa, subbing off around 50–60 minutes both times as a precautionary measure.
The calf tightness acquired on March 2026 international duty didn’t end Girma’s season. She carried on playing for Chelsea up to the next international break, where she again played two of the USWNT’s three games (against Japan this time).
On this occasion she was subbed off just after the 80-minute mark of her second game, but this was as a tactical decision and no injury was apparent nor reported by Hayes or Bompastor.
Girma did not play again for the rest of the 25/26 season. Again, it’s not clear what happened and when.
Bompastor was asked about her international returnees in the lead-up to Chelsea’s game against Everton on 26th April. She appeared in good spirits regarding the international break, and did not mention Girma.
However, the player was not involved in the squad in any capacity for the rest of the campaign.
Three weeks after Girma’s outing against Japan, which concluded with a tactical substitution and no injury news from club or national team, Bompastor revealed that Girma had experienced another calf-related issue. “Naomi won’t be available for the weekend,” Bompastor said. “She just had a setback in her calf, so she’s not available.”
By this point, Chelsea’s WSL ambitions were all but over, and there were only a handful of games left. Girma therefore didn’t miss much meaningful club action, but clearly wasn’t able to fully participate in training or matches.
To reiterate, while Girma’s last game of the 25/26 season was for the national team, there was no news of an injury during that game from Hayes or Bompastor until the latter discussed a “calf setback” three weeks later.
The elephant in the room
Girma sat out the conclusion to Chelsea’s 25/26 season and again had a full pre-season to rest and recover for this season. She played in the European qualifiers against Real Sociedad in late-August early-September, but for the second year running, missed the start of Chelsea’s WSL and Champions League campaigns.
Sometimes, Girma has sat on the bench, at other times she has been completely absent from the matchday squad.
Bompastor mentioned a “small injury” on 13th September, obviously from training/preparation as Girma was not playing in any games. Then, in early October, the US squad for two friendlies against Spain was announced. Girma didn’t make the squad.
On 22nd October, Bompastor offered more clarity.
“I didn’t have much information on Naomi before. I gave the earlier information before the international break, but actually Naomi is now dealing with a calf injury. I think it will take a few weeks for her to get back, so for now she’s just rehabbing. She’s in a good place rehabbing and doing the things she has to do and to focus on. We’ll see, but I don’t have any timeframe for now.”
Obviously, the ideal scenario is injury prevention, not to be reinjuring the player and rehabbing the same muscles over and over again.
Over the course of 21 months with Chelsea, Girma has suffered calf injuries or related issues five times. Three happened specifically in training or matches with Chelsea: one on her debut, one in 2025 pre-season, and one in 2026 pre-season. One happened on international duty in March 2026. And one — mentioned by Bompastor three weeks after international duty, in May 2026 — is not entirely clear in origin.
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, Girma’s overall availability for WSL action has been alarmingly low. Of 39 possible league games, she has played in just 15 (38.5%). She has started just 12 of those 39 games (30.8%).
With news of the player’s latest calf injury, it is clear that this cannot go on, suits no party involved, and if allowed to go unchecked any further, could potentially have serious damaging effects on the player’s career.
Hayes pointed to the elephant in the room after it was confirmed she could not call Girma up for the games against Spain — critical friendlies in the USWNT’s planning for next year’s World Cup.
“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. We are working closely with Chelsea to think differently about creating the right solutions because the player suffers.”
Avoiding the blame game
Bompastor succeeded Hayes as Chelsea manager in 2024. Over the following year, she led the club to a rare domestic treble, essentially repeating the instant success she had with Lyon previously. Some light was shed on the team’s training methodology under their new manager.
Per an article by The Athletic:
“Training sessions are executed at game intensity, an element established early in Bompastor’s tenure. Players responded well to the demands, according to a source who, like all referenced in this piece, wished to remain anonymous to protect relationships. The players respected her desire to get them to the next level.”
“She demands a lot of technical execution from everyone,” Erin Cuthbert told ESPN. “And I think she will never settle on what she wants to achieve, which, for sure, certainly demands training at a high intensity; if you can’t do it in training, then you can’t play it in the game.”
It would be tempting, if cynical, to connect a line between this reported “match-intensity” training and Girma’s recurring calf injuries. To suggest this is more than media-driven hyperbole, and hypothesise the player is trapped in a vicious cycle: recovering, training, injured in training, back to recovering. However, we can’t jump to conclusions based on the limited knowledge we have, and it is worth noting that under-training represents an injury risk too.
The truth is that we don’t know if Chelsea’s staff are being too hasty, not hasty enough, or inexplicably unfortunate. These things are complex, but the fact remains that the majority of Girma’s issues have occurred during club play or training. It is natural, then, for outsiders to question how Chelsea are individually periodising her recovery within the broader framework of team training.
Merely announcing another calf injury in another press conference isn’t enough at this stage.
What next?
Ongoing subjective assessment of the injury by the player is important. It’s crucial not only that the player doesn’t put a “brave face” on to rush back and help her team, but also that she is not pressured to do so by club or international duty.
Given Hayes’ comments, it wouldn’t surprise me if Chelsea and the USWNT work on a longer-term process for Girma, to allow greater time A) to properly assess why calf injuries are recurring, B) to let the injury fully, properly heal and C) allow a more gradual return into training and rebuilding not just in the injured muscles but in whatever other ways are affected by an extended spell out.
Hayes and Bompastor may have different methodologies and that always adds complexity for any player travelling between club and international duty, particularly one with a recent history of injury. Perhaps going forward there will be more alignment between the two, if the alignment hasn’t been spot on already.
The player
Girma is not a “big” defender. Her prowess is not based on physicality, but on reading the game, anticipating and positioning, and neutralising the opponent in one-versus-one situations on the ground. She is among the very best in handling difficult defensive transition moments.
Obviously, recurring calf problems are a headache for any player, but for Girma specifically they are extremely relevant, given her lack of height advantage and relative strength defending outside the box rather than inside it. She needs to be able to accelerate and decelerate, sprint, change direction. Even the non-contact actions like intercepting a pass, she has to feel strong pushing off to make that play.
All the more reason not to allow what is clearly an abnormal situation to continue. Players should not be picking up the same or similar injuries repeatedly, four or five times in a year-and-a-half. Beyond the specific ways it affects her ability to perform, it must also take some toll on a human psychological level.
Hopefully in the coming months there is more clarity on Girma’s road ahead. And hopefully she goes on to enjoy the sort of successful future her calibre deserves. That’s something everybody, the player, her club and her national team, can surely agree on.
Blair Newman (@secondball.bsky.social)
