- Kerr sustained the ACL injury during a Chelsea training camp in January, making her recovery timeline incompatible with the Olympics scheduled for July.
- Her absence adds to the Matildas’ challenges as several key players, including Katrina Gorry, Clare Hunt, Aivi Luik, and Amy Sayer, have also been sidelined due to injuries.
- The Matildas’ coach, Tony Gustavsson, faces a tough evaluation process for the final selection of players for the Olympics, especially with the absence of key players like Kerr.
Newsypeople- Samantha May Kerr, OAM, born on September 10, 1993, in East Fremantle, Western Australia, is a renowned Australian professional soccer player. She stands at 1.67 meters tall and plays as a striker.
Kerr’s career began with youth football at Western Knights and WA NTC from 2006 to 2008, before she moved to Perth Glory in 2008, marking the start of her senior career.
Over the years, she has played for various teams, including Sydney FC, Western New York Flash, Sky Blue FC, Chicago Red Stars, and currently Chelsea, where she wears the number 20 jersey. Her international career spans from 2008 with the Australia U17 team to the present day, where she captains the Australia women’s national team.
As of the latest update, Kerr has made 128 appearances for Australia, scoring 69 goals, making her the all-time leading Australian international scorer.
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Sam Kerr: Australia & Chelsea striker Out Of Paris Olympics
After suffering an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, Sam Kerr, the famous Australian footballer and top scorer at Chelsea, has been forced to sit out of the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Matildas’ coach was only able to publicly announce the forbiddance of Kerr’s participation in the 2024 Olympics due to her continuous rehabilitation from the ACL tear while releasing the Australian team for the final pre-Olympic matches.
She received the injury during a Chesterfield training camp in January, and with the Olympics coming in July, her recovery time does not match the event. The absence of Sam Kerr, the greatest star of women’s sports in Australia, is a considerable obstacle to the “Matilda” team in their game preparations for the Olympics.
The team has other challenges as some of their main players, Katrina Gorry, Clare Hunt, Aivi Luik, and Amy Sayer, are also out of action following a line of different injuries that they sustained, which makes the quest for the team’s success even harder.
#BREAKING: Matildas star Sam Kerr has been officially ruled out of the team’s Olympic Games campaign due to an ACL injury.
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) May 21, 2024
The 30-year-old striker was left out of the 23-player squad by Football Australia, alongside teammate Katrina Gorry, who is recovering from an ankle injury.… pic.twitter.com/aSVGkhQdSR
Sam Kerr, due to her injury, will postpone the Matildas’ performance ahead of her ankle recovery. The leaping of her track record due to calf strain had made her sit for some games during the World Cup, but not long after her ACL injury and legal issues, she had to face a different series of obstacles.
The national soccer team looked disturbed by the issue, as the coaching staff was having a tough time deciding who would join Sam Kerr in the squad.
In preparation for the Olympics, the staff will be using the four international friendlies—two against China and two against the United States—as a parameter to prove their worthiness, including technical and tactical factors. The coach prefers a mixture of the old and new batch, with the current stars benefiting from the players who are not injured, like Sam Kerr.
Impact Of Sam Kerr’s Absence On The Australian Women’s Soccer Team
Sam Kerr’s exclusion from the Australian women’s soccer team at the 2023 Women’s World Cup has been highly felt, as the team failed to work out due to her injury. She had been one of the team’s captains and still remains one of the best female soccer stars in the world.
The loss of Kerr due to injury, a leading striker in the team and one of the most followed female soccer players in the world, was a significant factor in the team’s below-par performance at the World Cup in the end. Sam Kerr, who sustained a calf injury in training just before the tournament, has been replaced by Emily Gielnik in the starting match against Ireland, and the team was missing Kerr in the following match against Nigeria.
Her absence was also a vital factor in the defeat to Nigeria, which meant the Matildas had to fight against eliminations. The team has not come out clearly on how serious Kerr’s injury is, but Kevin Muscat, the Matildas coach, has hinted that she can be back for the final group game to be played against Canada. Hayley Raso, by contrast, has made public the announcement that Kerr will “definitely be back in this tournament.” Kerr is a super athlete regarded as one of Australia’s absolute icons, not just in football alone but in the whole country.
It has been a source of grief for her supporters that her withdrawal has imposed an additional burden on the rest of the team members to rise to the occasion in her absence. Despite the massive pain of Kerr’s injury, the Matildas are never the ones to shy away from hard work in the face of adversity.
Foord added that the team’s time at the pre-season camp together had made the star’s absence less of a hassle. The Matildas were globetrotting elsewhere when they had another accident during a closed training session. Mary Fowler took a knock that led her to the sidelines for a while before she was subsequently observed by the medical staff.
Nonetheless, Football Australia has categorically stated that there is no suspicion about Fowler’s fitness as she had a “precautionary check-up.” At this point, when the Matildas were preparing to face Canada in their final group match, they were what all would want: that Kerr get healed in full and play the upcoming match.
The simple fact of this tournament was that her presence on the pitch would provide the very first and biggest stimulus for the team, which would undoubtedly impress the opponents too.
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