Matildas captain Sam Kerr has declared herself fit to return from injury for Australia’s huge Women’s World Cup match against Canada.
Kerr, Australia’s all-time leading scorer with 63 goals in 121 games, injured her left calf the day before the Matildas’ opening game against Ireland and hasn’t played since.
But the superstar striker said she was available for Monday’s clash at AAMI Park which Australia realistically must win to guarantee progression to the round of 16, without relying on Ireland beating Nigeria.
The Matildas (three points, goal difference 0) sit third in Group B behind Nigeria (four points, +1) and Canada (four points, +1).
A draw against world No.7 Canada, who beat Australia 1-0 in Brisbane and 2-1 in Sydney last year, likely won’t be enough to avoid an embarrassing group-stage exit on home soil – unless Ireland beat Nigeria by more than two goals at Suncorp Stadium.
Australia last failed to make it out of the group stage in 2003 and falling short of that marker could well cost under-fire coach Tony Gustavsson his job.
The two Group B games kick off simultaneously at 8pm AEST on Monday night.
Kerr is Australia’s all-time leading scorer with 63 goals in 121 game.
Before Saturday’s announcem,ent from Kerr, Gustavsson could only offer: “All I can say now is that I hope so.
“I know it’s going to be tight. Most likely not getting confirmation on that until the night before the game and we’ll go from there.
“It might even be we have to test her on game day. That’s how tight it is.”
He was not surprised that Kerr was keen to play.
“Of course she will. That’s going to be her mindset and that’s what I love about Sam,” Gustavsson said.
“She’s going to give anything she can to be out there.
“She deserves to be out there and if she can be out there she will be.
“We have to come up with a plan together to see what’s the best way to maximise the minutes she has, if she’s available.”
Fellow striker Mary Fowler should return from concussion and would be a welcome addition after the Matildas lacked a clinical edge against Nigeria.
“Everyone has the capability to score those chances, but those two are very well known for their scoring ability,” substitute Alex Chidiac told reporters.
“If we have them back in the team, of course that’s a boost for us. But I still back everybody out there to be able to do the job.”
Chidiac insisted the Matildas could yet pull their campaign out of the fire.
“You look at all World Cups in history, male and female, and teams face adversity and they bounce back. We’re a team that thrives off that,” she said.
“I have no doubt we’re going to be able to bounce back.
“We have had things (go) against us with injuries and various things on the outside, but we back ourselves massively going into this game.
“We’ve got every ambition to win (against Canada) and to top our group and go forward.”
At work
Roar Rookie
Very true, WC matches would gain the most ranking points so don't want to waste the opportunity!
chris1
Roar Rookie
And it's important in the rankings as well to finish as high up in the group as possible. Finishing on 0 points will not do Ireland any favours. Unless injured, they will play their best 11.
At work
Roar Rookie
Agree, there's no way they'd use this to give fringe players experience, even a dead rubber match is important to get 3 points. Pride matters most in this circumstance.
At work
Roar Rookie
While the Peppa Pig 'ratings' are a bit of a laugh, what isn't a laugh is how useless OzTam are that they think we're all stupid enough to think the sampling they use is at all credible. Only 5k people around the entire country are used for their 'ratings'; across all cities, regions, ages, ethnicities, cultures, wealth, etc.
jimmy jones
Roar Rookie
Care factor zero… was a gd article in the Australian today about the bs secrecy and control of interviews treating supporters like fools … let’s hope they get booted out by Canada !!!
Grem
Roar Rookie
Be careful, you’ll be sidelined again.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Agree - they’ll play good, hard football. I wouldn’t be surprised if they won. They’re a good team.
IrelandsCall
Roar Rookie
Nope. Ireland will field their strongest team. Although out of the tournament, the Irish will be going for the win.
mrl
Roar Rookie
Peppa pig almost beat the NRL.
mrl
Roar Rookie
Come on Matildas!!! This it!!! Can’t wait for Monday! Meanwhile the agenda came out for the next meeting of the AFL: The earth is flat. Men did not land on the moon. And Aussie rules is popular in Western Sydney.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
We have to win ---- nothing else will do. Ireland will field their team with their fringe players to give them a taste of WC football.
Para+Ten ISUZU Subway support Australian Football
Roar Rookie
PEPPA PIG-AM ABC Kids/ABC TV Plus 103,000... Go the Pigs, go you good things.
The Ball Bobbled
Roar Rookie
As other posters have said, you have to wonder about two key players getting injured in training bad enough to keep them out of critical matches - and bringing a striker, Simon, along knowing she wont participate on the park and leave us with only one striker. Then there's the late sub issues as well. All this has been covered already but still waiting for answers.
Grem
Roar Rookie
That’s a really good read NoMates. I absolutely agree. We may get knocked out on Monday, but that will be a massive underachievement for this team – which can happen in sport. This team should have made at least the quarter finals, but they haven’t really played the football that they are capable of and now that’s just wishful thinking. They need to start stringing their passes together and have a lot less turnover. The England v Denmark game showed what we need to do. And Nigeria are a decent team. It’s a shame we didn’t have one definite weak team in our group as are in some others.
mrl
Roar Rookie
Go Morocco!!!
NoMates
Roar Rookie
FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP 2023 AUS V NGA Seven Network 898,000 THE MID-YEAR ASHES: FIFTH TEST -ENG V AUS -SESSION 1 -D1 Nine Network 487,000 LIVE: NRL: BRONCOS V ROOSTERS FOX LEAGUE 147,000 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS – FUKUOKA 2023 – FINALS 9GO! 112,000 PEPPA PIG-AM ABC Kids/ABC TV Plus 103,000
NoMates
Roar Rookie
Ill be ripping my hair out if they lose this one. The Matilda's are so much better than what we have seen so far and i can only blame the coach for last game loss but then again Nigeria are the dark horse of this competition.
Buddy
Roar Rookie
So if they fail on Monday it will all be on SK’s shoulders! - nice one.