USWNT and Orlando Pride forward Alex Morgan has said she was "fairly sick" with COVID-19 after she and her family tested positive for the virus over Christmas.
Morgan, 31, returns to the USWNT squad for the SheBelieves Cup after missing out on the January training camp when she tested positive for the virus alongside her daughter Charlie and husband Servando Carrasco.
"I was fairly sick," she told a news conference on Thursday. "Me and my whole family got it -- Servando and Charlie -- so with that said, we were together for 10, 12, 14 days and kind of just recovering, sleeping as much as we could.
"I was fighting off a little bit of a fever for quite a few days but as I got back and kind of took the right steps to get my body back into shape, I started to feel really good after about three weeks or so but it did take a little bit, and it took a lot of patience as well, on my end."
Morgan was speaking ahead of the opening of the SheBelieves Cup on Feb. 18 with the USWNT taking on Canada, Brazil and Argentina in the tournament.
While she missed the January camp, she did make her return to the USWNT in November after taking time out to give birth to Charlie.
Following the cancellation of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) regular season she signed with Tottenham in the Women's Super League and spent the first half of the 2020-21 season in England.
While her comeback to football was hampered by injury, she said she doesn't feel like her year has been massively different to a lot of her teammates.
"When I look at the break that I have had, it's kind of been an interesting one because it's been a really inconsistent one," she added.
"I think everyone has had that. I look at myself, and although over the last year-and-a-half, I haven't really played that many games and I've kind of been really in and out with the national team, here and there, due to pregnancy, due to COVID and other things, I don't feel like I'm that different than a lot of my teammates because of the pandemic and just people getting COVID, people getting injuries, not having a place to play for quite a few months at a time."
Morgan had the option to stay in England for the remainder of the WSL season but opted to return to the NWSL instead. However, she said the decision was harder than she expected it to be.
"As I went through the season with Tottenham, I really enjoyed my time and I really loved it more than I expected," she said.
"I got to know the girls a lot more than I thought and the decision ended up being a lot harder than I expected. I really weighed both sides for quite a few weeks.
"I think ultimately, it just came down to coming back to the United States because that way I would keep our family as close together as possible, given the circumstances. With the pandemic continuing to really to extend into 2021, I just felt it was just best for me to be in the United States and just be available for the national team and start off a full season with Orlando Pride."