KC Current’s Bia Zaneratto Unexpectedly Out for Season

When the NWSL injury reports came out on Friday for this weekend’s NWSL playoffs games, the headlines may have gone to the Kansas City Current’s Temwa Chawinga still being questionable. She missed the last game of the regular season, but all the talk was that she could play if she needed to.

#NWSL Golden Boot winner and record-breaking scorer Temwa Chawinga is officially listed as questionable (knee) for Saturday's quarterfinal. pic.twitter.com/S3GTxwJmUS

— Jeff Kassouf (@JeffKassouf) November 9, 2024

What may have snuck under the radar was the designation for Bia Zaneratto. The Brazilian striker suddenly had SEI listed next to her name. Bia had been moved to the Season Ending Injury list. A blow to a team that had been looking forward to her return with the playoffs starting today.

Part of the hope was it was a typo by the NWSL. Until the team confirmed it with their own report this morning.

Today's Health Report ❤️‍🩹@KUHospital | #KCBABY pic.twitter.com/AC9GJq32qm

— KC Current – x (@thekccurrent) November 9, 2024

Earlier in the season, Bia missed a couple months with a broken bone in her foot. It kept her out of the Olympics but had less of an impact on the KC Current’s season since they were playing non-league competitions, the Summer Cup and the Women’s Cup, during the break.

However, Bia wasn’t quite ready to return after the break and Kansas City went on a three-game losing streak. Their only three losses of the entire season. It was enough to move them down the table to fourth place, where they would finish behind the Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit and NJ/NY Gotham.

During that losing streak, there was a lot of talk about when Bia returns, the Current will be different against those teams. It’s a weapon they haven’t seen. But when Bia returned, she wasn’t quite right. She came back as a sub on September 7th in a 1-0 win over the Utah Royals. She subbed into three more games before finally starting against Racing Louisville in a 2-0 win. But that’s the last time we’d see her on the field.

As recently as this week she was listed as day-to-day, but if the Current want to win the NWSL Championship, they’ll have to do it without Bia. That starts today against the North Carolina Courage.

One fortunate thing in Bia’s absence is the emergence of Nichelle Prince at striker. The former winger plays centrally at times for Canada and has now found a home there for the KC Current. The next big test is coming in just over an hour.