Two-time reigning National Women’s Soccer League MVP Temwa Chawinga is officially out for the start of the Kansas City Current‘s 2026 season, head coach Chris Armas said on Friday. The timeline for Chawinga’s return remains unclear.
Kansas City opens the new season on Saturday at home against the Utah Royals.
“With Temwa, we have to be really intelligent with how we bring her back, in the right doses into training,” Armas told reporters. “What I can tell you and everyone is that she’s getting closer. She’s not available yet, but she’s getting closer, which means we’re seeing her out on the training pitch these days.
“It’s such a demanding season for these athletes, especially the demands that she puts into games. So, as she’s getting close, we still are managing it the right way.”
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Chawinga won the league’s MVP and Golden Boot awards each of the past two seasons. She injured her adductor in October in the penultimate match of the 2025 regular season.
Kansas City won the 2025 NWSL Shield by a record 21 points last year behind 15 goals from Chawinga. Chawinga missed the Current’s quarterfinal match in November due to her injury. The top-seeded Current were upset by No. 8 seed Gotham FC, the eventual champions, in extra time of that quarterfinal.
Chawinga was listed on Kansas City’s season-ending injury (SEI) list at the start of preseason, although the NWSL allows players to be removed from that list at any time if they begin the year with such a designation.
Armas said on Friday that he believes Chawinga’s return will be in the near term, but he could not specify when that would be.
“It is hard because it’s a complicated injury she had,” Armas said. “I’d love to be able to know myself, even, but I think the best way to do it, which is the most honest, is short-term. Is it the next month where we see [her in] action? Who knows. But that’s me trying to give you [an answer] that it’s getting closer.”
Chawinga set the single-season NWSL scoring record in 2024, her first season in the league, when she scored 20 goals in the regular season.
Forward Michelle Cooper was taken off Kansas City’s SEI list on Friday after suffering from “respective lower body and foot injuries at the end of the 2025 NWSL regular season.” Cooper also missed that quarterfinal loss to Gotham due to injury.
Cooper is “coming back into the team,” Armas said on Friday.
Armas said he has had to try out different combinations of forwards considering the injuries and absences.
Bia Zaneratto, who was the team’s starting No. 9 when healthy the past two seasons, departed in the offseason to return to Brazilian club Palmeiras.
“We’ve had to figure out some life without Temwa for a bit,” Armas said.
Combined, Cooper, Chawinga and Zaneratto scored 28 goals last season.
Kansas City signed forward Penelope Hocking from Bay FC earlier this week in a $350,000 transfer. Armas called Hocking a “versatile” forward who can benefit Kansas City.
Earlier in the offseason, Kansas City signed attacking midfielder Croix Bethune in a blockbuster shakeup that coincided with the Current transferring holding midfielder Claire Hutton to Bay FC.
On Friday, Armas also praised the versatility of U.S. international forward Ally Sentnor, who will play her first full season with the Current after arriving via transfer last summer.
