Orlando Pride’s Barbra Banda out for the season with hip injury

Orlando Pride leading scorer Barbra Banda will miss the rest of the National Women’s Soccer League season with a hip injury.

The Pride announced on Saturday that Banda sustained a “full thickness avulsion of her right adductor longus tendon,” meaning that the tendon had fully separated from the bone.

Banda, a Zambia international, was injured during Pride’s match against the Kansas City Current on Aug. 16. She had eight goals this season.

Banda was named the most valuable player in the NWSL championship game last year, scoring the lone goal in the Pride’s victory over the Washington Spirit. She had 17 goals last season.

“Barbra has been instrumental to our success and losing a player of her caliber is heartbreaking for the entire organization,” said Orlando’s vice president of soccer operations and sporting director Haley Carter in a statement. “We know she will approach her rehabilitation with the same determination and professionalism she brings to everything she does.”

A Ballon d’Or nominee, Banda has played for Zambia’s national team since 2016. She had hat tricks in the Tokyo Olympics and last year’s Paris Games. In 2024, she was named the African women’s player of the year and the BBC’s women’s footballer of the year.

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer