The winger missed out on Tuesday's clash with England due to a hamstring issue but says she'll be back in action for the final
Megan Rapinoe says she fully expects to feature in the Women's World Cup final after missing out on Tuesday's semifinal win over England.
"Just a minor hamstring," Rapinoe said of the injury after the match. "It’s not really even a strain but not really able to go today, we just felt like it wasn't going to hold up. We have been talking about this depth that we have for months and months and all throughout the tournament it was on full display tonight. It just felt like it was the best option not only for myself but for the team.
"It happened late in the second half of the France game. It wasn’t like one moment where it cranked up or anything and [I was] able to go 10 or 15 more minutes in the second half. I’m expecting to be fit for the final and ready to go. It’s getting better."
Ellis also laid out the reasoning behind leaving one of her stars on the bench.
"Megan's got a slight strain to her hamstring so wasn't available today," Ellis said at a news conference. "Obviously I feel we have a really good, deep bench and called upon other players and I think they did a fantastic job. Yeah, [it's] a hamstring strain.
"I thought Pressy (Christen Press) did fantastic. There was an outside chance Rapinoe could take a penalty, so thereby we didn't want to extend ourselves more than we had to in terms of giving our starting XI when we needed to. Every coach wants to keep their cards as close to their chest as possible, fortunately we didn't have to go to penalty kicks but that was an option, potentially."