Two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2015 Women’s World Cup winner Lauren Holiday has to undergo brain surgery for an operable benign tumor. Her husband, New Orleans Pelicans point guard Jrue Holiday will sit out the start of the NBA season in order to be with his family.
Holiday is eight months pregnant and will undergo induced labor to give birth earlier and thus have surgery earlier. She will have surgery six weeks after her child is born.
Lauren Holiday began her career with the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2007 and won gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. After getting married to Jrue and the desire to start a family, Lauren retired from the USWNT at the age of 27, after scoring a goal in the 2015 Women’s World Cup Final. She retired from club play at FC Kansas City later that year after winning back-to-back NWSL titles and NWSL MVP in 2014.
Jrue Holiday is going to be with his wife and unborn child and sitting out for the start of the NBA season and the Pelicans are supporting his decision to be with his family in a happy as well as scary time.
“My family comes before basketball,” Jrue Holiday told the Times-Picayune. “I’m obviously blessed to play this game and be in the position I am in, but my wife is the most important thing in the world to me. She comes before anything else.”
The Pelicans are going to send a trainer up to Raleigh, North Carolina to be with Holiday in order for him to individually train and stay in touch with the team so whenever Lauren gets to 100%, which she is expected after birth and surgery, Jrue can get back to the Pelicans without missing a beat.
[ESPN]
