Racing Louisville's Nadia Nadim expected to be back from ACL tear in June, possibly before

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Racing Louisville began preseason training earlier this month, and soon, the team will be joined by superstar Nadia Nadim.

Nadim, who signed with the club last June, played eight games before tearing her ACL in September, missing the remainder of Racing's inaugural campaign. She is currently in Los Angeles, but is expected in Louisville later this month.

“She will be back in a couple of weeks here, we will see, she’s doing great,” coach Kim Björkegren said Friday after the team’s first intrasquad scrimmage. “But I’m not sure if she’s going to be back (playing) in two months or when it’s gonna be. We will see.”

Recovering from an ACL often takes about eight or nine months. Björkegren said that under normal circumstances, Nadim would be back and competing in June.

“But she’s not the normal player, so it would not surprise me if she is ready earlier than June,” he said of Nadim, who's under contract with Louisville through 2023.

Nadim is an internationally renowned soccer standout who also has an inspirational story: at age 12, she and her family escaped their native Afghanistan after the Taliban killed her father, a military general. She then discovered soccer as a refugee in Denmark.

During her soccer career, Nadim has also studied medicine, and over this past offseason, completed her coursework to become a doctor.

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Racing players reported to training on Feb. 1 and had their first intrasquad scrimmage Friday. With the exception of Emily Fox and Jaelin Howell, who are training with Team USA ahead of the SheBelieves Cup, the bulk of Louisville’s expected 2022 roster was in attendance. That included Ebony Salmon and Jess McDonald, two forwards who played alongside one another in the scrimmage.

Salmon, 21, scored six goals for Louisville last year, and the recently acquired McDonald, 33, is the NWSL’s career leader in assists.

“Hopefully, I can assist her and get her some goals, as well as get myself some goals,” Salmon said.

Salmon said that one of the first things Björkegren spoke to the team about this preseason was playing a more offensively aggressive style.

“His style of play that he wants us to play is going to be completely different to how we did last year, and I think for us, it’s the way we always wanted to play,” Salmon said.

Rookie Savannah DeMelo said that the team expects to be “possession-based.”

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“I think (Björkegren) wants us to build out of the back, which is huge, it’s the style I like to play, so I think he wants us to go from defense to midfield to forwards, not skipping any lines,” she said.

The NWSL’s 22-game regular season schedule has not been announced, but the Challenge Cup — an early season tournament — has been scheduled. Racing will open competition with the KC Current at 7:30 p.m. on March 18.

A year ago, Louisville finished ninth in the 10-team NWSL, missing out on one of the six playoff spots. There are now 12 teams in the league, and Racing will seek to finish in the top half and qualify for the postseason.

“Last year, we obviously didn’t finish where we would’ve hoped to finish in the league. I think this year, our aim is definitely to make playoffs,” Salmon said.

Hayes Gardner can be reached at hgardner@gannett.com; Twitter: @HayesGardner.