U.S. women's national team defender Kelley O'Hara will be sidelined 8-12 weeks after undergoing ankle surgery, U.S. Soccer announced on Tuesday.
O'Hara will miss the team's friendlies next month against Scotland and Portugal, which will be the USA's final two games of 2018.
Despite the injury, O'Hara remains upbeat about her prognosis heading into 2019.
"It's all good. These kinds of things come with the territory," O'Hara said in U.S. Soccer release.
"This is just the best time to get the procedure done so I'm 100 per cent heading into 2019 and physically ready to perform at the level I want to and need to.
"It's a bummer that I won't get to Europe, but the most important thing is to be healthy for next year."
The injury continues a frustrating 2018 for the 30-year-old, who missed much of the NWSL season with the Utah Royals due to a hamstring problem.
O'Hara did not feature for the USWNT between March and her return to the side for a friendly in September against Chile.
The right back did start four of the team's five matches in the recently completed Concacaf Women's Championship, which the U.S. won while also qualifying for the 2019 World Cup.
