The Chelsea striker is Australia’s all-time goalscorer of either gender with 63 goals across 121 caps, but she will be forced to watch Thursday’s opener against the Republic of Ireland from the bench after sustaining the injury during a training session on Wednesday. Australia next face Nigeria on July 27 and will hope Kerr is fit enough to start their final group stage match on July 31 against Olympic champions Canada, the highest FIFA-ranked Group B nation. A Matildas tweet read: “Sam Kerr is unavailable tonight after she picked up a calf injury at training on MD-1. “I wanted to share this with everyone so there is no distraction from us doing what we came here to achieve. “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.”

Source: The Guardian July 20, 2023 09:50 UTC