OSLO, Norway (AP) — The leadership of Norway captain Ada Hegerberg was highlighted Monday as key for the two-time former title holder heading into the Women’s European Championship next month.
Hegerberg, the 2018 Ballon d’Or winner, headed a 23-player squad picked by coach Gemma Grainger for the July 2-27 tournament in Switzerland.
“One of Ada’s biggest strengths is how authentic she is,” Grainger said Monday with Hegerberg sitting next to her at a squad announcement event.
“Ada will always tell me what she thinks,” the coach said, adding “then you get to places a lot quicker” even if it involved “many uncomfortable conversations.”
Hegerberg quipped with a smile: “That is what you get.”
Norway was European champion in 1987 and 1993 and is a four-time beaten finalist, most recently in 2013 when the team had a teenage forward line of Hegerberg and Caroline Graham Hansen.
The two storied veterans and former Champions League winners — Hegerberg at Lyon and Hansen at Barcelona — with a combined 100 national-team goals are the biggest stars in the Euro 2025 squad.
The 30-year-old Hegerberg has 49 goals despite persistent injuries, and a five-year exile from the team ahead of Euro 2022 that helped push the national federation to treat women’s soccer more equally.
Norway has not advanced from the group stage in the past two Euros editions though looks favored in the 16-nation draw for Euro 2025.
Norway plays in the opening-day game against host Switzerland on July 2 in Basel, faces Finland at Sion four days later and Iceland on June 10 in Thun.
“People can say there are none of the bigger names in our group,” Grainger said. “You don’t underestimate anybody.”
Defender Maren Mjelde was picked for her fifth Euros at age 35 and with 179 national-team games. Four players left on standby include Liverpool forward Sophie Román Haug.
Norway squad
Goalkeepers: Cecilie Fiskerstrand (Fiorentina), Aurora Mikalsen (Cologne), Selma Panengstuen (Brann).
Defenders: Tuva Hansen (Bayern Munich), Guro Bergsvand (Wolfsburg), Maren Mjelde (No club), Thea Bjelde (Valerenga), Marit Bratberg Lund (Benfica), Emilie Woldvik (Rosengard), Mathilde Harviken (Juventus).
Midfielders: Ingrid Syrstad Engen (Barcelona), Vilde Bøe Risa (Atletico Madrid), Elisabeth Terland (Manchester United), Justine Kielland (Wolfsburg), Lisa Naalsund (Manchester United), Frida Maanum (Arsenal), Guro Reiten (Chelsea), Signe Gaupset (Brann).
Forwards: Caroline Graham Hansen (Barcelona), Ada Hegerberg (Lyon), Celin Bizet Ildhusøy (Manchester United), Synne Jensen (Atletico Madrid), Karina Sævik (Valerenga).
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Norway's Vilde Boe Risa celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the Women's Nations League, group A2, soccer match between Switzerland and Norway in Sion, Switzerland, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Salvatore Di Nolfi)/Keystone via AP)
Norway's head coach Gemma Grainger gestures during the Women's Nations League, group A2, soccer match between Switzerland and Norway in Sion, Switzerland, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
Switzerland's Viola Calligaris, left, and Norway's Ada Hegerberg, right, challenge for the ball during the Women's Nations League, group A2, soccer match between Switzerland and Norway in Sion, Switzerland, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. flu infections showed signs of a slight decline last week, but health officials say it is not clear that this severe flu season has peaked.
New government data posted Friday — for flu activity through last week — showed declines in medical office visits due to flu-like illness and in the number of states reporting high flu activity.
However, some measures show this season is already surpassing the flu epidemic of last winter, one of the harshest in recent history. And experts believe there is more suffering ahead.
“This is going to be a long, hard flu season,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said, in a statement Friday.
One type of flu virus, called A H3N2, historically has caused the most hospitalizations and deaths in older people. So far this season, that is the type most frequently reported. Even more concerning, more than 91% of the H3N2 infections analyzed were a new version — known as the subclade K variant — that differs from the strain in this year’s flu shots.
The last flu season saw the highest overall flu hospitalization rate since the H1N1 flu pandemic 15 years ago. And child flu deaths reached 289, the worst recorded for any U.S. flu season this century — including that H1N1 “swine flu” pandemic of 2009-2010.
So far this season, there have been at least 15 million flu illnesses and 180,000 hospitalizations, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates. It also estimates there have been 7,400 deaths, including the deaths of at least 17 children.
Last week, 44 states reported high flu activity, down slightly from the week before. However, flu deaths and hospitalizations rose.
Determining exactly how flu season is going can be particularly tricky around the holidays. Schools are closed, and many people are traveling. Some people may be less likely to see a doctor, deciding to just suffer at home. Others may be more likely to go.
Also, some seasons see a surge in cases, then a decline, and then a second surge.
For years, federal health officials joined doctors' groups in recommending that everyone 6 months and older get an annual influenza vaccine. The shots may not prevent all symptoms but can prevent many infections from becoming severe, experts say.
But federal health officials on Monday announced they will no longer recommend flu vaccinations for U.S. children, saying it is a decision parents and patients should make in consultation with their doctors.
“I can’t begin to express how concerned we are about the future health of the children in this country, who already have been unnecessarily dying from the flu — a vaccine preventable disease,” said Michele Slafkosky, executive director of an advocacy organization called Families Fighting Flu.
“Now, with added confusion for parents and health care providers about childhood vaccines, I fear that flu seasons to come could be even more deadly for our youngest and most vulnerable," she said in a statement.
Flu is just one of a group of viruses that tend to strike more often in the winter. Hospitalizations from COVID-19 and RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, also have been rising in recent weeks — though were not diagnosed nearly as often as flu infections, according to other federal data.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - Pharmacy manager Aylen Amestoy administers a patient with a seasonal flu vaccine at a CVS Pharmacy in Miami, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
