Women’s Asian Cup: Sam Kerr spotted in knee brace before final after pulling out of Matildas press conference

Matildas superstar Sam Kerr has trained sporting a knee brace on the eve of the side’s blockbuster Women’s Asian Cup final against Japan. In a light session at Sydney’s Stadium Australia one day out from the tournament decider, Kerr bore some support around her surgically-repaired right knee. While training with club side Chelsea in January 2024, she suffered an ACL tear which left her sidelined for the better part of 18 months and required two operations to recover from. The side’s captain was scheduled to appear at Australia’s pre-match press conference earlier today, only to be pulled out as defender Ellie Carpenter took her place. But her coach Joe Montemurro batted away any concerns over the superstar striker’s fitness. “Sam’s done a lot of press, so we like to share the love,” Montemurro said. “It’s even more special to have Ellie here after the last game she played. “Sam’s fine, everything’s fine. We’re all ready to go.” Kerr has bagged four goals over the course of the tournament, which she entered on the back of a slow build-up back to fitness at club level. Speaking after scoring the decisive goal in Australia’s 2-1 semifinal win over China at Optus Stadium on Tuesday, Kerr said she still did not quite feel fully back to her best, but she was “pretty close”. “My goal-scoring ability, I feel like I’m there, I just need to be able to get myself into positions. I’m pretty tired now, I’ve played a lot of minutes in the last two weeks, and I looked up at the 62nd minute and I was like, I don’t know how I’m going to make it to the 90th,” Kerr said. “My fitness is probably just the repeat of games. I used to do this every every day, every week but now I feel like that’s probably where I need to gain a little bit, play a bit more minutes. “I have a lot of confidence in myself when I get in front of the goal that I’ll score and get in those positions, it’s just about getting in those positions consistently.”