Fishlock Likely to Return After Negative X-Rays, Reign Look to Bounce Back
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Seattle Reign midfielder Jess Fishlock kicks the ball during a game against the Kansas City Current on Wednesday, March 25, 2026 at ONE Spokane Stadium in Spokane, Wash. (Jane Gershovich, Seattle Reign Communications) [/caption]
TUKWILA, Wash. — It was a moment no Seattle Reign fan wanted to see.
Mere days after the announcement of her retirement at the end of the 2026 season, star midfielder Jess Fishlock came down badly on her left ankle in Sunday's 3-0 loss to the Utah Royals to drop Seattle to 3-2-1 (10 points, fourth in NWSL).
Fishlock immediately signaled to the sideline for help and shouted in pain, only for the medical staff to place an aircast on her ankle. As she left the pitch on a stretcher with her face buried in her hands, fans and coaches alike couldn't help but think they had just watched the final minutes of the 39-year-old Welsh legend's career.
Fishlock was taken to a nearby hospital for an X-ray, with her football future hanging in the balance.
It came back negative, and that was enough for head coach Laura Harvey to start planning for Seattle's most consistent offensive force to return.
#ReignFC coach Laura Harvey on Jess Fishlock, who was stretchered off with a leg injury Sunday:
“The fear at the moment and immediately after the game was that this might rule (Fishlock) out for the year. I think we’re pretty positive that that’s not gonna be the case.”#NWSL pic.twitter.com/exXFIomtXL— Qasim Ali (@qasimasports) April 28, 2026
Though a negative X-ray is as good as fans could have hoped for after how bad Sunday's injury and subsequent treatment appeared, don't count on seeing No. 10 don the captain's armband any time soon.
Harvey and the team didn't have a timeline or an exact diagnosis for Fishlock, but the veteran coach said the summer international break (set to last all of June) is a "blessing" regarding her return to play, suggesting Fishlock may need until July to return.
Fishlock was at training on Wednesday, with Harvey claiming she is handling the injury well, given her experience overcoming setbacks in her storied career with Seattle and Wales.
On the other end of the pitch, the Reign continue without the services of their most consistent and elite defender, Jordyn Bugg.
Bugg suffered a hamstring injury with the U.S. national team before the season, leaving an inexperienced Emily Mason to fill her starting center back role for the first five games of the season. Given the condensed schedule the Reign played under and the easy reinjury risk associated with hamstrings, Bugg progressed just enough in about a month to be available for selection in Seattle's scoreless draw with Denver on April 4. Despite her listing on the roster, she never saw the field.
With a three-week international break and Bugg set to train with the U.S. U-20 team, it seemed like the NWSL Defender of the Year finalist was well on track to return for the Reign's Seattle opener on Sunday. But after one of the first practices back with Seattle, four days after the U-20 camp, Bugg noted she was dealing with muscle soreness unrelated to the hamstring issue, according to Harvey.
Though Harvey didn't specify where the muscle issue is, it was serious enough to rule Bugg out of Sunday's fixture and was still serious enough for Harvey to rule Bugg out of Friday's game in Houston on Tuesday.
Where Do These Injuries Leave Seattle?
The story of the offseason was the Reign's offense. Seattle generated the fewest expected goals in the NWSL in 2025, but converted on their chances at the highest rate in the league. Harvey, with young, talented attackers like Emeri Adames, Maddie Dahlien, Mia Fishel, Maddie Mercado and others at her disposal, preached chance-generation in 2026.
In short, her philosophy revolved around the idea that Seattle's efficient offense could be one of the league's best if it simply threatened teams more often.
Six games into 2026, the Reign's 3.5 shots on target per 90 minutes are the fourth fewest, as Mercado leads the team with five shots on target this season. Fishlock has three, as does Dahlien, whose 3.58 shots on target per 90 minutes rank seventh in the NWSL. With Dahlien only playing 226 minutes this season in four games with two starts, look for Harvey to lean on the 21-year-old more often with Fishlock sidelined.
As for playmaking, Fishlock had been helping link things up to build out offensive chances. Luckily for Harvey, Nerilia "Coco" Mondesir has taken a leap forward in 2026 with two assists and a goal already. Given Mondesir's versatility, she could either continue manning either wing or slide into the attacking midfielder spot to spell Fishlock.
So if Seattle has answers to help remedy the playmaking Fishlock is taking with her, what will the Reign miss without their last remaining original since 2013?
What the numbers don't show is Fishlock's confidence in finishing chances decisively. The younger attackers on Seattle's roster have a tendency to overdribble, waiting for the perfect opening. Fishlock's innate sense for the game lets her strike quicker, and it's why the 39-year-old was second in the league last year in goals per 90 minutes, often swinging results by subbing on late.
So this span of no Fishlock for Seattle, which should last well into the summer by initial indications, will force Seattle's young core to replicate her decisiveness as Fishel will feel that pressure in particular as the team’s starting striker with Mercado as her reserve.
As for Bugg, her absence has been less apparent recently than it was at the start of the season. Mason has strung together some solid performances after being burned consistently to start the season, blocking shots with improved positioning.
Harvey has praised the 23-year-old, who's started all six matches, for her resilience. Tactical changes helped usher that improvement in, as Mason has played noticeably lower in the line than she did in the early going. She may not be the duelist that Sam Meza or Bugg are, but Mason has found a dependable niche in defending when the game comes to her.
That said, Bugg's ability to actively win the ball back and knowledge beyond her years in moving the ball around to start build-ups are still missed.
Putting Utah in the Rearview
Harvey was vocal in saying that Seattle's 2-0 loss in Portland earlier this season wasn't a good representation of what the Reign were at the time.
It's coachspeak, but the NWSL all-time wins leader backed it up with a 2-0-1 stretch in Spokane. The Reign allowed just one goal in that stretch.
On the heels of allowing three goals in the first half on Sunday, Harvey went back to bat for her team.
"Analyzing it, I thought our defensive structure and how we defended was actually really good," Harvey said. "But you can't give the ball away the way we did in those first seven minutes and at the end of the first half and expect to win football games in this league."
To Harvey's point, the first goal was the direct result of a turnover deep in Seattle's territory 40 seconds into the match, while the third came off a poor clearance in first-half stoppage time.
With the defense stretched out, Seattle watched as the Royals leveraged a few brilliant finishes to take a commanding lead.
The issue that defensive captain Sofia Huerta pointed to in the postgame still stands, and that is Seattle’s lack of urgency and disregard for the scout of Utah. The Royals were always going to press high and dive on short passes in Seattle's third, and the Reign were clear on that going into the game. Still, they relied on short passes and playing on the back foot, which bit them a mere 40 seconds in.
It may be something as simple as Seattle coming out flat after three weeks without a game, but it's always concerning to see a team look flat to start their home opener.
"You can't turn up in games in this league and be lower than seven out of 10 collectively, ever," Harvey said. "For one minute, for five minutes, for 90 minutes… In the first seven minutes of the game, we turned up lower than seven out of 10."
While it's far too early to hit the panic button, Seattle needs to come out with some fire to open its game in Houston. That'll be the only way to truly wash away the defensive disaster that Sunday was, because the defending outside of those low-effort moments was more than passable.
On the offensive side, the shutout can honestly be chalked up to an unlucky day.
After the second Utah goal in the seventh minute, Seattle took control of the game completely as Mondesir generated a few chances while Fishlock put an unsavable ball off the crossbar. Mercado also hit the bar in the second half as Seattle generated a respectable, but low 1.0 expected goals on four shots on goal.
Mercado had some moments of brilliance in Spokane and once again led the Reign in xG with 0.4. She, alongside Dahlien, will need to continue to be empowered to bring Seattle back to form on that end.
Mondesir made her mark in confined moments, but her quality has stood out the most as Seattle should turn to the Haitian captain more with Fishlock out on Friday night in Houston.
