The 2025 Kansas City Current season has gone incredibly well. That may even still be an understatement. They locked up the NWSL Shield faster than any team in league history and they’ve broken numerous other records along the way.
For the last month, they’ve just been managing minutes, injuries and fitness as they ramp up towards the 2025 NWSL playoffs, which are about a week away as of this writing.
That is, until the last game. The Current’s 17-game unbeaten streak came to an end in a game they dominated against the Houston Dash, but they also got bad injury news. Temwa Chawinga, the reigning NWSL MVP, went down in the first half with a non-contact injury.
NEWS: Temwa Chawinga exited Saturday’s game with a right leg injury in KC’s upset loss to Houston.www.nytimes.com/athletic/672…
— The Athletic (@theathletic.com) 2025-10-19T03:17:57.471Z
Immediately after the game, an injury update wasn’t available outside of head coach Vlatko Andonovski saying it was an upper leg injury, not a knee injury and that results of her MRI were pending. The first update came from Temwa herself, a few days later. She indicated she had to turn down her national team call up by Malawi due to her injury.
Because of the international break, the wait continued. The KC Current were practicing with as few as eight players with so many women away with the United States, Brazil and other national teams on top of their injuries. It wasn’t until this week the media finally got to talk to Vlatko.
OMG! Just tell us what is going on!
Kansas City Soccer Journal Editor, Thad Bell, got everyone the update in the press conference. And even then, Vlatko started with updates on other players. “Deb is good. Kayla’s good. Gabby. They’re all good. Temwa is still not good and we’re not going to take any risks at this point. We’ll see how she progresses.”
To Thad’s credit, he pushed for a timeline and if she’d play in the playoffs.
“There’s a chance,” continued Andonovski. “She’s day-to-day. And we just know she’s not going to be able to play on Sunday. And we’ll see how it goes from there.”
Day-to-day. It feels like it could have been far worse. When she went down without contact, couldn’t put any weight on her leg and then eventually left the field in a wheelchair, most people feared the worst.
Vlatko and the KC Current are pretty cagey with their injury updates, so she’ll probably be questionable in a week when the playoffs start. It seems highly likely they can win a game without her, but Temwa’s gravity is enormous. She’s nearly impossible to stop and she makes everyone around her better. Everyone cross your fingers and your toes.
KCSJ will bring you more when we know it.
