“She Won’t Be the Same Player” | Can Mallory Swanson Still Be an ELITE Player Post Pregnancy

The Late Sub with Claire Watkins

Just Women’s Sports

Sports, Soccer

4.9 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2026

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week Claire takes a deep dive into the return of Chicago’s Mallory Swanson. The evolution of her game, how much does being on a struggling Chicago team impact her chances for the USWNT roster, and what’s Chicago’s SMART PLAY for getting her back to full form? This episode is presented by Ally Bank, member FDIC Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:46 Returning from Pregnancy 04:29 The Evolution of Mal Swanson 06:43 Differences Between Mal & Sophia 08:26 USWNT Players on BAD Teams 11:26 Will Chicago Hurt Mal’s USWNT Chances 17:37 Chicago’s SMART PLAY 20:14 Will Swanson Get Called Up for June Friendlies? Just Women’s Sports is the leading digital media platform dedicated exclusively to women’s sports. In a world where women’s sports have been historically underfunded and under-promoted, Just Women’s Sports exists to shine a light on all the stories, athletes and moments that define and fuel the space. Through original podcasts, premium video programming, social media, editorial content, a newsletter, and exclusive merchandise and live events, Just Women’s Sports is committed to making it both easy and fun to be a women’s sports fan. Add us on: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justwomenssports/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/justwsports Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@justwomenssports?

Transcript

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0:00.0	US Women's National Team and Chicago stars forward.
0:03.0	Mallory Swanson is back on the pitch and the stars need her back very badly.
0:08.0	Today we're going to talk about how good or bad of a thing that is as she makes her way back from pregnancy.
0:15.0	Hello everybody and welcome to this week's edition of the late sub presented to you by Ally Bank.
0:19.0	I am your host Claire Watkins. It is Wednesday,
0:21.8	May 20th. And yes, we're going to do a deep dive on Mallory Swanson, the incredible attacker,
0:26.9	who is returning to a team in great distress on the pitch. We're going to talk about the different,
0:33.1	you know, kind of norms of players coming back from pregnancy in a very positive way. We're going to talk about some of the uniqueness or perhaps lack of uniqueness of Swanson
0:41.5	coming back to a team struggling this much, what that implies for her return to the US
0:45.6	wins national team, and why Swanson herself actually might be one of the best equipped players
0:50.6	out of any of them to be able to make this shift as she returns with an eye on
0:55.7	27.
0:56.8	Lost to talk about.
0:57.8	Let's dig in.
1:03.1	So last week, last NWSL weekend, we saw a very welcome return to the field that has implications
1:10.0	at both the NWSL and the international level.
1:12.7	Of course, yes, Mallory Swanson hit the field for the last for the first time in over 18 months,
1:19.0	maybe the last 15 minutes or so of Chicago's game at North Carolina.
1:22.9	Again, she's been away from soccer for over a year coming back after giving birth to her daughter Josie in November of last year, not rushing anything as she continues to sort of
1:32.5	build physically, but certainly with an eye towards what the rest of the year could look
1:36.7	like for her, of course, for Chicago, but also again, as the US women's national team is
1:40.8	ramping up into qualifying later this year and certainly a World Cup next year.
	...

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