Amidst the chaos of the transfer window, the highly anticipated 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup has kicked off. The tournament is jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, making it the first Women’s World Cup to be hosted by more than one nation. The Australian star Sam Kerr stands out as one of the most prominent players participating in the World Cup.
The Australians suffered a huge blow as they found out that the 29-year-old superstar had suffered an injury during training, ruling her out of the next few matches. With Australia facing some challenging teams in the group stages, Can the Matildas qualify for the knockout stages without their captain?
Sam Kerr suffers calf injury ahead of FIFA Women’s World Cup
On Thursday, barely an hour before their kick-off against Ireland, the Chelsea forward announced her unavailability due to a calf injury that she sustained in training a day earlier. Following her unfortunate injury, the Australian captain has been ruled out of two games of the Women’s World Cup. The Australian national team released an official statement which said: “Sam will be unavailable for the next two matches with the Matildas medical team to re-assess her following our second group stage match.”
Australia announce Sam Kerr is unavailable for their first two World Cup games after she picked up a calf injury pic.twitter.com/soJp8liiM1
— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 20, 2023
The Chelsea superstar used her Instagram platform to address her injury. She said, “I wanted to share this with everyone so there is no distraction from us doing what we came here to achieve.” She added, “Of course, I would have loved to have been out there tonight but I can’t wait to be a part of this amazing journey which starts now.”
Who can step up to replace Sam Kerr’s goal output?
Despite the unavailability of their captain, the Australian women’s national team kicked off the tournament with a strong performance, securing a 1-0 victory against Ireland. Tony Gustavsson’s team has been in exceptional form, winning nine out of their last ten matches, including a 1-0 win over France in a friendly last Friday and a 2-0 win over England in April.
Sam Kerr is the nation’s all-time top scorer scoring 63 goals in 121 games. With the unavailability of their top scorer, the spotlight is on other attackers in the team to step up and contribute with goals until their captain returns. In the absence of Sam Kerr, Tony Gustavsson will be relying on players like Emily Van Egmond and Caitlin Foord, who are the sixth and seventh top scores for the Matildas respectively.
Australian fans are hopeful that Sam Kerr’s name will be back in the line-up for the game against Canada, as her presence is crucial for their World Cup campaign. If the injury of the Chelsea superstar proves to be more serious, it could have a significant impact on Australia’s chances in the tournament.
