Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson has admitted Sam Kerr is unlikely to start in tonight’s Olympic qualifier against Iran.
Kerr is still recovering from the calf injury that cruelled her World Cup campaign in August, and will see limited minutes for the time being.
“I think all of us would love to play Sam Kerr for 90 minutes every game,” Gustavsson said ahead of clashes against Iran, the Philippines and Taiwan.
“She would love to play in front of friends and family and kind of say thank you for everything. I would love to play her 90 minutes. I think everyone watching the game would love to see her 90 minutes.
“But we always said we want to have a healthy high-performance culture in here with a player-centric approach. Considering she’s coming back from injury very recently – she hasn’t played 90 minutes in a very, very, very long time. Not for club either, with that calf issue coming back, and we really need to be extremely mindful.”