The Brazilian national team will be without their goalscorer Nycole Raysla at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. The Benfica striker sprained her left ankle in training.
This was announced by the Brazilian Football Association, the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF), on Tuesday morning (07/18/2023). There is no chance of a timely recovery, it said. Therefore, Raysla was removed from the World Cup squad. The striker, who has scored 49 goals in 88 games for Benfica and was one of Brazil’s hopes at the Oceania tournament, has been called up by OL Reign’s Angelina Alonso Costantino from the US professional league NWSL.
Sundhage: “Had great preparation time”
The 23-year-old had already traveled to Australia as a substitute with the Brazilian team, where coach Pia Sundhage’s team in the Gold Coast were preparing for their World Cup start next Monday (07/24/2023, 1 p.m.) against Panama. On Monday (07/17/2023) the Brazilians played a friendly match over three times 30 minutes against a male U15 selection from Queensland, in which Raysla sprained the ankle. Now the “Samba Queens”, as the team is also known, will move into their base camp in Brisbane.
“We had a great pre-season, everyone did their best. The World Cup can start for us,” said Sundhage.