Mary Fowler may have hurt her knee … badly. That would be an utter disaster for the Matildas

Australian soccer is still cursed. Whatever John Safran did with that chicken in Mozambique all those years ago to overturn a curse placed on Johnny Warren’s Socceroos in 1969, it clearly didn’t take. Or maybe there’s a different curse on the Matildas. Who knows?

How else to explain the acute misfortune that continues to befall our most beloved national team, particularly on the eve of major tournaments?

Sam Kerr famously did her calf just before the Women’s World Cup, curtailing her involvement in a tournament that felt like it was almost made for her. Then she did her ACL in the lead-in to Paris 2024, robbing her of a chance of redemption; she still hasn’t returned to the field.

Now Mary Fowler? Of all players? This close to the Women’s Asian Cup?

At this point, it’s worth taking a breath and saying: we don’t know yet. This could be a false alarm. They do happen. We hope it’s one of those. All we know for sure is that Fowler was subbed off in the 24th minute of Manchester City’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester United in the Women’s FA Cup semi-final on Monday morning (AEST), having injured her knee in some way.

Mary Fowler hurt her knee - the question is how badly.Credit: Getty Images

But it didn’t look good. A few minutes before she was taken out of the match, she overstretched to receive a pass from teammate Lily Murphy and her right knee gave way. She was taken straight off after treatment on the field.

As she was receiving treatment, the cameras panned to some of her teammates in the stands – among them Vivianne Miedema, who missed the match due to a hamstring injury. Miedema is one of many high-profile ACL victims in the women’s game, and the horrified, knowing look on her face said it all.

As Matildas fans awoke on Monday morning, they clung to the carefully chosen words of City’s interim coach, Nick Cushing: “It doesn’t look great ... I think it is the knee, but I don’t want to speculate or confirm. We’re not fearing for the worst here. I’ll leave it with the medical team.”

We’re not fearing for the worst here. But he would say that, wouldn’t he?

Brian Seeney, aka the NRL Physio, is social media’s best injury expert. His verdict? “Video is never diagnostic, but this is as close as you will get – points heavily to an ACL injury,” he posted on X. “Really unfortunate.”

You could say that again.

An ACL injury to Fowler – less than a year out from the Asian Cup, which kicks off in Australia on March 1, 2026 – would be an utter disaster for the Matildas and for Australian soccer at large.

For starters, we’ve only just figured out how best to deploy her rare talents. It wasn’t rocket science: just play her in the position that works for her in clubland. That’s on the left wing, where she can see more of the play, cut inside and pull the team’s attacking strings. She was put there in the second of the two recent home friendlies against South Korea, and she ran the show.

What a shock; world-class player does well in preferred role, more news at 6.

Mary Fowler leaves the field with a Man City trainer.Credit: Getty Images

There’s still no permanent head coach in place, but interim boss Tom Sermanni’s decision to finally use her there felt like a missing piece of the Matildas’ puzzle had clicked into place for whoever comes after him. Fowler on the left, a fit-again Kerr in the middle (which might not be until next season, at this rate) and probably the versatile Caitlin Foord on the right. There’s your front three. Done. Next question.

But if Fowler is out, it’s back to the drawing board. In fact, it would be such a blow that any prospective coach might hesitate about taking the job altogether. What would Joe Montemurro, for example, be thinking right now as he considers whether to walk away from Olympique Lyonnais to come home and coach the Matildas?

Without Fowler, arguably their best attacking player, he’d probably be thinking twice.

Indeed, Fowler is more than just a very good player. She is, in Kerr’s absence, the face of the team. She is a marketer’s dream. She sells tickets and merchandise. And she is a bridge between the class of Kerr/Foord/Catley et al and the future. When those players begin to announce their retirements from the international game, probably as early as the weeks and months after the Asian Cup for some, it’s Fowler who they will be passing the torch to.

Mary Fowler will lead the next generation of the Matildas.Credit: Getty Images

To not have her involved in that generation’s last major tournament will make the transition just that little bit more jarring.

This all raises another, more uncomfortable question, too. This injury scare (we’re going with scare until it’s confirmed) comes less than a week after Fowler played for the Matildas in Newcastle – in a friendly that seemed to serve little actual purpose, since there is no coach in place to plan for the future, other than to capitalise commercially on this team’s phenomenal popularity via ticket sales. Medical research shows that long-haul flights beget injury scares, and sometimes injuries. Have the Tillies been squeezed too hard?

Bright-side thinking: if it is an ACL (which, again, we don’t know for sure), the dream’s not necessarily over. Socceroo Alessandro Circati is an example of what’s possible; he did his just six months ago and returned to his first match-day squad for Serie A club Parma this past weekend.

Granted, men usually recover faster than women. But for every Kerr-type who faces complications in her rehab, which has gone on for 15 months and counting, there are surely those who buck medical convention and come back sooner. And Mary Fowler is capable of amazing things.

Hope. That’s hope talking. In the face of despair, as we await further information, it’s the best we can do right now.

Watch every match of the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League on Stan Sport. All the action streaming ad-free, live and on demand, with select matches in 4K UHD.