GOAL sat down with the USWNT midfielder to discuss her rehab, her new purpose and the emotions of seeing your loved ones get their chance.
Sam Mewis is doing okay. She's still recovering from her knee injury, the one that has kept her out of a U.S. women's national team jersey for the last two years and will unfortunately see her miss the Women's World Cup. One knee, multiple surgeries, two years out and, ultimately, one World Cup dream gone up in smoke.
A World Cup is the pinnacle of a player's career. Mewis has already been to, and won, one, but who wouldn't want another crack at it? A healthy, in-form Mewis would be a key figure for the USWNT this summer if not for that injury.
That fact, though, doesn't make accepting it all any easier. Knowing what could have, and should have, been makes moments like this even harder. And Mewis, admittedly, has spent much of the last two years not just rehabbing her knee, but rehabbing her mind due to all of the trouble that injury caused her.
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She'll still be majorly connected to this World Cup, though. Two sisters, one born and one chosen, will be in the USWNT squad this summer, and Mewis will, of course, be watching and cheering, sweating out every result from afar. What comes after that? It's too soon to tell. But, as the USWNT prepares to defend their World Cup title Down Under this summer, Mewis has accepted her new role, even if it isn't the one she always dreamed of.
Ahead of the World Cup, GOAL caught up with Mewis to discuss her recovery, the World Cup and her renewed sense of purpose during a challenging time in her playing career.
GettyFinding a new purpose
It's been nearly two years since Mewis underwent surgery on her right knee, surgery that was supposed to keep her out for somewhere around eight weeks. It doesn't take much math to put together that eight weeks and two years are vastly different timelines. It's safe to say that this process, all of it, hasn't gone as expected.
Back in January, Mewis announced that she'd need to undergo more surgery on the same knee. The announcement came after her NWSL club, the Kansas City Current, who traded for her in 2022, placed her on the season-ending injury list with a “long-standing progressive injury to her right leg suffered prior to her arrival in Kansas City.”
USWNT head coach Vlatko Andonovski said in January that Mewis would remain out with a "long-term injury" before Mewis herself confirmed that there was no timeline for her return.
The injury has cost her two years of her career, games for her club and the national team that she'll never get back. She scored 24 goals across her 83 caps, winning a World Cup title and Olympic bronze, but it still isn't clear when Mewis will be back to being a player that was always so key to the USWNT. Mewis played in six of the USWNT's seven matches in the last World Cup, scoring two goals in the group stage as the U.S. triumphed over the Netherlands.
It's all been difficult, no doubt, physically and mentally. Mewis has dealt with a lot over the last two years, and going through that is something that will change your perspective on not just your career, but life in general.
"I think it's super important to keep in mind," Mewis began, "and I would give this advice to any of the athletes here: when you are facing an injury or some kind of adversity like this and you're unable to participate the way you want to, find a new purpose in there somewhere. Maybe you're feeling isolated from the team or you have a setback with an injury or something goes wrong, I think being able to kind of reframe in that moment and say, 'What can I do here that's going to be productive?'.
"It might not look exactly like what I want it to look like but it will give me a new sense of purpose. I think I've had to do that a little bit. Obviously, I haven't played in a while. I'm just doing my rehab and taking it one day at a time but I think my message is just in moments like that, in moments of difficulty, just try to find that new purpose, if you can, and apply yourself to that."
AdvertisementGettyRooting for Kristie (and Lynn)
If there is a silver lining to it all, it is that Mewis will still feel deeply connected to this summer's World Cup team. The group is obviously made up of long-time teammates and friends, many of whom she played alongside for years while claiming trophies at the highest level.
There's something even more human to it than that, though. Mewis' absence has, at least somewhat, helped pave the way for her sister, Kristie, to make her first World Cup squad.
The two starred together in the USWNT midfield back in 2021, with Sam scoring her first career hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Colombia. Kristie scored the other goal in that win and, in the years since, has completed a return to the USWNT that, for a while, seemed like it would never be on the cards.
Kristie has 52 career caps, but was totally out of the picture between 2013-2020. After making one appearance in 2020, she's become something of a regular in the years since, especially since her sister's injury took her out of the lineup.
In a video released by U.S. Soccer, the elder Mewis was clearly emotional as she received the call from Andonovski. You can see the precise moment when nerves turn to tears, signaling her realization that her dream just came true.
Kristie Mewis must have felt like the happiest person in the world during that Facetime call, but her feelings were soon matched by her sister Sam when she found out the good news.
"When Kristie did call, I was just so proud of her and happy for her," Mewis said. "I know that she's been through her own adversity, her own injuries. She's been in and out of the team, so seeing her dreams come to fruition was so inspiring for me. Watching people you love get that call and have that moment it's really inspiring and you really just feel so happy for them."
Mewis' sister wasn't the only one close to her that received that life-changing call. Her longtime friend, and 'Snacks' podcast co-host, Lynn Williams was also named to the USWNT's World Cup squad for the first time in her career, having amassed 53 caps since making her debut all the way back in 2016.
"I feel super invested in both Kristie and Lynn Williams,'" Mewis said. "Lynn, we joke that she's like my other sister. I'm really close with her. I was so confident in both of them and I wasn't nervous waiting for them to tell me that they had made it because I just felt like I knew they would both make it."
GettyStaying a part of it all
Mewis, though, won't just be a fan during the upcoming World Cup. She'll also be analyzing it from the other side.
On Wednesday, it was announced that Mewis would be a part of the Men in Blazers' World Cup coverage, hosting a daily podcast as well as Twitch streams to provide live commentary during games. It's an opportunity for Mewis to be a part of the tournament, albeit in a different way than she would have originally hoped.
"I'm excited to watch," she said. "I'm going to do some media stuff during the World Cup, so I'm really excited to be a part of it from another perspective."
GatoradeLooking at the next generation
Ahead of the World Cup, though, Mewis got a chance to take a look back at one of her earliest accomplishments while also spending a moment looking ahead to the next generation.
Mewis, a two-time Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year, joined the likes of Jayson Tatum and DK Metcalf at the Gatorade Player of the Year Awards in Los Angeles on Tuesday, spending time alongside 2022-2023 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year Kennedy Fuller. Fuller, a U.S. U-16 international, won the award as a high school sophomore and has already committed to the University of North Carolina.
For Mewis, the ability to meet and give advice to a player like Fuller is something that she enjoys immensely as she looks to remain a role model to the next generation of rising USWNT stars.
"I'm so impressed hearing about Kennedy's life and how advanced she is and how much she's doing and how well she's doing," Mewis said. "I think when I was her age, something that we actually were just talking about is balancing that traveling with the national team or coming to events like this. For Kennedy, being away, traveling for your club, being away from your family, there's such a balance to it, and if you go on to have a career where you're going to be playing all over the world or all over the country all the time, you really have to learn that balance.
"Kennedy seems like she already knows all of those steps. She's talking about her nutrition and being in the weight room and recovering and, when I was 16, I don't think I understood that fully. It seems like Kennedy does so I'm just super impressed and it's been fun getting to know her."
She added: "I think being a part of something like this reminds you of why we go through all of this stuff. It's to create opportunities for yourself to, hopefully, inspire the next generation. I think a part of my motivation is always trying to be involved with who's up and coming and seeing if I can help in any way or give any advice."