Coach says Kerr not ready for Matildas return yet

Matildas striker Sam Kerr is still not ready to play some 15 months after knee surgery but might possibly be available in the next international window, Australia’s caretaker coach Tom Sermanni said on Wednesday.

Kerr has not played for Australia since scoring her 69th international goal against Taiwan in November 2023, and Sermanni made clear any return to the Matildas camp would be conditional on the agreement of the 31-year-old’s club, Chelsea.

“She’s tracking pretty well, but she’s not just quite ready yet to come in and play,” Sermanni told reporters after announcing his squad for friendlies against Argentina on May 30 and June 2.

“From our situation, it’s a camp-by-camp sort of scenario. Obviously, for Chelsea, now they’re at the end of their season, so now they’ll be looking at her coming back and ready for the pre-season to start next season.”

The Scot said it was feasible that Kerr could be in the squad for double-headers against Slovenia in late June and Panama in early July if Chelsea wanted her to have a runout before the London club start pre-season in early August.

“If (Chelsea) feel that she’s ready to come back for our next window, whether they think, well, it’d be good for you to come and get some game time. That might happen,” he added.

“If, on the other hand, they say, look, we just want her now to take this time to get her preparation really well done, so that come the start of pre-season, she’s ready to go. That’s, I would say, probably a more likely scenario.”

Sermanni said he was in regular contact with Kerr, adding that the striker and her partner Kristie Mewis seemed happy after the arrival of the couple’s first child earlier this month.

Joe Montemurro looks set to be announced as a permanent replacement for Tony Gustavsson once the Australian finishes up the season with the women’s team at Lyon.

“Joe would do fantastic in the job,” Sermanni said. “He knows the players intimately. He’s coached at the highest level for a very long time. And he’s been extraordinarily successful.”