Meg Morris has indicated to the NWSL that she will be retiring at the end of her 2017 contract as part of the league’s re-entry wire process.

Morris has been with the Thorns since 2016, a season in which she memorably came off the bench to score her only professional goal against the Washington Spirit. She fractured her hip away against the Western New York Flash and, after recovering, has been training without cartilage in her hip (a story well told by Timbers.com writer Richard Farley). Morris only played 11 minutes in 2017 and has been on the club’s Season Ending Injury list for most of the season but has been a regular on the training ground, working to get herself up to match fitness even when playing another game in 2018 had been officially ruled out and even participating in full training late in the year.

When a player is listed as “retiring” by the NWSL, they don’t have to go through the re-entry waiver process, and their rights are retained by the last club that held them. This has occasionally been used to turn the rights of a “retired” player who has left the league into a trade asset, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Neither the club nor Morris have made an announcement about her future yet, but with Morris dealing with long-term injury, it would seem to be the end of her playing career.

Morris will be attending the USSF C-License course co-hosted by the NWSL and the Utah Royals in the offseason. It’s good to see someone to whom the game clearly means a lot get the chance to stay in it.