'I worked my a*s off to be here' - North Carolina Courage & USWNT star Ashley Sanchez opens up on long-lasting effect of being benched for entirety of disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign

The North Carolina Courage playmaker believed she would have an important role when she was called up for the tournament in Australia and New Zealand. However, she was disappointed to be told that she would instead spend the tournament on the bench as then-coach Vlatko Andonovski preferred to start Savannah DeMelo and then Rose Lavelle following her return from injury.

She told the Friendlies with Sam Mewis podcast: "I was told that I wasn’t going to play. I was trying to make the best of a situation, but it was definitely hard. When I was in it, I was [thinking], you don’t want to look back and have such a negative idea of something that you dreamed of your whole life, you know? But when you’re in the moment, you’re trying so hard to think of the positives, but you’re also like: 'Yeah, but I’m here, I worked my a*s off to be here, and I know I’m not going to play'.”

The USWNT crashed out of the competition at the Round-of-16 with a penalty shootout defeat against Sweden. Sanchez soon returned to the NWSL and played a starring role for the North Carolina team, though it took some time to get over her World Cup disappointment.

She said: "I felt like I’m going to come back, I’m just gonna play really great and prove everyone wrong, and then I was just kind of like: ‘Oh, I think I actually need to deal with this'. It’s not just going to go away because you’re playing well, you know? And that was probably…I hadn’t gone through anything that hard, I would say."

The 25-year-old has made 27 appearances for the USWNT and registered three goals and four assists. She will hope to play a key role this summer when Emma Hayes takes charge of the team ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris.