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Matildas coach Tony Gustavasson has allayed fears surrounding Sam Kerr’s health, after the forward was seen with an ice pack on her “good calf” after training.
Kerr has been on the bench for the majority of the Women’s World Cup after injuring her left calf on the eve of the tournament.
A report on 9News on Tuesday evening revealed images of Kerr walking into the team’s hotel with what appeared to be an ice pack on her right calf muscle.
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Kerr was earlier filmed at training with no strapping on either calf.
Kerr missed all of Australia’s group matches and only made two appearances from the bench in the knockout wins over Denmark and France.
She was brought onto the field after 55 minutes in the quarter-final penalty shootout win over France, slotting a penalty and getting more miles in the legs.
“Not concerned,” coach Gustavsson said on Tuesday when asked about Kerr’s fitness.
“What we’ve done is we’ve focused on recovery. So each player follows an individual plan between the games. Some have done more football than others. It’s all about being as fresh as possible for the game tomorrow.
“When it comes specifically to Sam, she pushed through more minutes than we hoped for, to be honest, one of the reasons why we kept her on the bench was that we were uncertain how many minutes she had coming back from, from that calf, but also the limited training minutes she had.
“The way she pushed through was fantastic and impressive, both from a mental and physical aspect, she recovered well and she trained today and so she’s available.
We will be (talk tonight again (about) the best starting 11, the best finishing 11 and whether we plan for 90 minutes or plan for an extra time and those type of decisions, there will be some tough decisions again, but Sam is definitely available for selection.”
