Alex Morgan is fine. She said so herself.

“I’m OK, thank you,” the U.S. national team’s biggest star called out to reporters Thursday following a 2-0 win over Sweden in Women’s World Cup group play.

U.S. coach Jill Ellis said she kept Morgan out of the second half of that game as a precaution and she expects the team’s leading scorer to be available for Monday’s knockout-round game with Spain.

“It was just more ‘let’s be smart about this,’ ” Ellis said. “It’s a zero-risk game in terms of having players available for the next game.”


All of that must come as quite a relief to all the U.S. fans who had panic attacks after Morgan was knocked down on a hard foul in the 33rd minute and came up limping. She was able to finish the half but didn’t reenter the game after the intermission.

At that point, some folks on social media were ready to start World War III.

Sweden needs to know that if they hurt Alex Morgan we will go to war and it's not even a question #USWNT #SWEUSA — unremarkabletweets (@yolo_wolfe) June 20, 2019


Alex Morgan is coming off at halftime after getting kicked repeatedly in the first half.



Sweden are bullies. — The American Outlaws (@AmericanOutlaws) June 20, 2019

But Morgan, whose five goals have her tied with Australia’s Sam Kerr in the Golden Boot race, apparently is good to go. Crisis averted.

charles.schilken@latimes.com


Twitter: @chewkiii