by Sam Kerr has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament. It is devastating. A devil for Kerr, for Chelsea, for the Matildas, and for Australian football.
Kerr picked up the injury during Chelsea’s training camp in Morocco; the rest of the Women’s Super League season, the UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign, and the Matildas’ Olympic qualifiers with Uzbekistan in February were ruled out. Neither Chelsea nor the Matildas have put a timeline on their recovery, but it’s hard to see how this won’t ensure Australia’s all-time leading scorer won’t be at the Olympics, assuming they qualify.
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The competition starts in Paris in just over seven months. The bare minimum modern medical science provides for ACL recovery is six, and elite athletes will inevitably need longer to return to something close to full fitness. It took Ellie Carpenter nine months before she was able to return and more before she started to look like her pre-injury self. Kerr is a dynamic 30-year-old – not 22, like Carpenter – whose explosive movement and ability to dominate opposition defenses has elevated her game to world-class levels. A return in time for Paris would be one of the most miraculous recoveries the sport has ever seen, even before there is any denial about the level of play she could achieve.
Even after the most thorough rehabilitation, players who have had one ACL injury are at risk for another, and returning to the strain only increases that risk. We have recent evidence that Kerr is pushing back from a calf injury during the Women’s World Cup – but the qualification is that it was a one-off event and she had already been named in the squad. This time around, Australian coach Tony Gustavsson and his sports science team have a greater level of responsibility and obligation regarding her fitness that relates not only to her long-term ability to contribute to the Matildas but also her talismanic role. he plays for football, especially women’s football, on a global scale.
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The Olympics is still a major tournament where Australia will be desperate for a first medal – but not in the same all-encompassing vacuum as the World Cup at home. Kerr will look to be a key contributor on the road to the 2027 Women’s World Cup (if she wants to be) and Australia will likely host the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup – another chance to lift a major trophy at home.
With another global superstar out with an ACL injury, it reaffirms the reckoning facing women’s football with this scourge. The injury has ripped through Kerr’s former home Women’s A-League this season. Nat Tobin, Chelsea Blissett, Grace Kuilamu, Grace Wisnewski and Marisa van der Meer are among those who have gone down, as is rising Matildas forward Holly McNamara, who suffered a third ACL tear at just 20 years of age, just after having been called up to the. senior national team.
McNamara’s absence has left Gustavsson with an even tougher task as he tries to plan for Paris without the biggest starter of 18 players. Assuming he keeps a 4-4-2 formation, a front line of Caitlin Foord, Emily van Egmond, Mary Fowler and Hayley Raso looks like the most likely deployment – the same one that destroyed Canada on the counter during the Cup The world. After defeats against Canada in recent friendlies showed the mats the Matildas held without Kerr, they are likely to fall back on their strength in high-speed transitional football even more. (Kerr’s injury will surely give Australian Football a better intention to keep Gustavsson amid reported interest from the Swedish team to prevent further disruption.)
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Most importantly, however, Australia still has the talent, assuming it is used appropriately, to challenge. Steph Catley is one of the great leaders in Australian football history, who has already shown he has the ability to get this side together in Kerr’s absence. Ford is a first class player. And then there is Fowler.
There was always something about Mary, that’s why she went to the 2019 World Cup at the age of 16, before she had even played a professional club game. Given the brutal nature of football’s fruitless march forward, Fowler’s absence could see Fowler take the next leap in her young but brilliant career as she tries to fill the void left by her captain.
Kerr’s injury is devastating. The team rallies around her and, in time, she will beat around them. But as in Paris, a team that captured the heart of Australia must now take a course to taste a new moment for their community.
