'I feel great now': Kaleigh Riehl talks about her injury recovery, which she calls longest of her NWSL career
Simply putting on the jersey and being available for selection in the Utah Royals' 1-1 draw with Seattle Reign FC was important for center back Kaleigh Riehl as she recovers from a calf injury.
She didn’t see any time, but just putting on the jersey and being available for selection for Utah Royals FC was enough for Kaleigh Riehl in a 1-1 draw with Seattle Reign FC in NWSL play.
The 27-year-old center back had been out since the fourth game of the 2024 season, when the former Royals starter injured her calf and began a long rehab stint at the club’s Herriman training facility with the medical staff.
So being able to just be part of the team and available for selection, to train and not have that nagging pain in her lower leg that affected her for longer than any point in her professional career? That was enough, at least for the moment.
“I feel great now,” Riehl told the Salt City FC podcast. “But it’s been a long process, for sure. This is the first time that I’ve been injured in season during my NWSL career for a substantial amount of time. That was kind of hard to navigate. But I’m back in training, I’m feeling good, and I’m feeling more confident with more training.
“It was nice to put the jersey on that first game, even though I didn’t get minutes. I was still happy to be a part of it.”
Riehl has had to adjust to a lot — different teams, different leagues, different cultures — since she was selected by Sky Blue FC in the 2020 NWSL college draft out of Penn State. She was part of the league’s best defense a year ago in San Diego, help the Wave win the NWSL Shield as the top team in the regular season behind a defense that allowed just 22 goals on the year.
But she’s also been part of several expansion teams, from Racing Louisville to the new generation of Utah Royals — the team against whom she initially made her NWSL debut in the 2020 Challenge Cup in Herriman.
Returning to the spot where Amy Rodriguez went directly at her and scored the game-winning goal at Zions Bank Stadium was a special moment for Riehl, who found immediate success as a freshman at Penn State when the Nittany Lions won the NCAA championship and Riehl earned All-Big Ten freshman honors.
Eventually, though, she had to learn that a championship season didn’t come around every year. It took patience, dedication, and occasionally a bit of luck — in addition to hard work and perseverance, as the cliches state.
“I think I had to learn that early on in my career,” Riehl explained. “I went in to my freshman year, and I was like, ‘wow, is this every year?!’ We had an exceptional group that year, and really all the stars just aligned for us to win the national championship that year.
“The following years, we were still very competitive and made it deep in the tournament,” she added. “But it made you look back and realize how special that team was, and how to win something like that, you need everyone to be all in, all the pieces to align, and a special moment. It doesn’t happen that often.
“But having that feeling early on was also nice. In the years after, I knew I wanted that feeling again. Everything you work towards, you have that in your mind and you want to feel it again. So it was a cool experience, even if I did have to realize that doesn’t happen every single year. It made me hungry to get that feeling again.”
Riehl expects to be available for selection by interim head coach Jimmy Coenraets when the Royals open the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup at 7 p.m. MT Friday against Seattle Reign FC at Lumen Field.
The match will be broadcast live on CBS Sports Network.
Before then, listen to Riehl’s conversation with Salt City FC, where she talks about her injury, her recovery, how she got to Utah, and her first interaction with Rodriguez as her head coach — and not the U.S. national team striker who scored the gamewinner against a Sky Blue rookie years ago.