The Orlando Delight’s playoff pursuit and quest for a second consecutive NWSL title has been dealt an enormous blow. Star striker Barbra Banda will miss the rest of the 2025 common season as a result of a full thickness avulsion of her proper adductor longus tendon, the membership introduced on Saturday. Banda leads the staff with eight targets scored by means of 16 video games.
“We’re devastated to announce Barbra Banda has been positioned on the Season Ending Damage listing following the soft-tissue damage she sustained throughout our current match towards Kansas Metropolis Present,” stated Haley Carter, Orlando Delight VP of Soccer Operations and Sporting Director.
“Barbra has been instrumental to our success and shedding a participant of her caliber is heartbreaking for all the group. We’re dedicated to offering her with the very best stage of care and help all through her restoration. Her contributions to this staff each on and off the sphere have been immeasurable, and we all know she’s going to method her rehabilitation with the identical willpower and professionalism she brings to all the pieces she does.”
The damage was sustained through the membership’s Aug. 16 match towards Kansas Metropolis Present which suffered a three-hour delay, as a result of excessive warmth circumstances.
Banda’s arrival to the league has captivated the eye of world audiences. She joined the membership in 2024, and the Zambian worldwide has scored 25 targets and recorded seven assists throughout 41 matches. She was named a 2024 NWSL MVP finalist and earned the NWSL Championship MVP, the place she aided Orlando Delight to its first NWSL Championship title and was named to the 2024 NWSL Finest XI First Workforce. She was voted BBC’s Girls’s Footballer of the 12 months, and not too long ago earned her second. Ballon d’Or nomination.
The Delight not too long ago bolstered their assault with a world document signing in Lizbeth Jacqueline Ovalle. The membership negotiated a $1.5 million switch payment for the Mexican worldwide who not too long ago signed with the membership by means of 2027, with a mutual possibility for 2028.
