Matildas camps ahead of Rio Olympics set to be for domestic players, with overseas-based stars unavailable

THE five Matildas training camps on the road to the Rio Olympics will be primarily for domestic players.

OSAKA, JAPAN - MARCH 02: Ellie Carpenter of Australia in action during the AFC Women's Olympic Final Qualification Round match between Australia and Vietnam at Yanmar Stadium Nagai on March 2, 2016 in Osaka, Japan. (Photo by Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)

THE five Matildas training camps on the road to the Rio Olympics will be primarily for domestic players, with coach Alen Stajcic not anticipating having his overseas-based stars available.

The Australian Sports Commission have pledged to assist with the funding of the camps in Canberra in May and June, as revealed by The Daily Telegraph, which is a major boost based on the Matildas’ medal-winning potential.

They will provide Stajcic with the opportunity to add depth to his squad by having a closer look at players who missed out on the recent qualification tournament in Japan.

“We’ll invite 16 domestic players to the first camp, considering we’ve got 10 or 12 playing overseas that gives us a good opportunity to look at some other players who weren’t involved in the qualifiers and see how they’re tracking and progressing,” Stajcic said. “It’s a good opportunity to add some players to the squad and grow the depth.”

The first camp has been pencilled in for May 1, but it will only be from the beginning of July that the entire squad will come together to prepare for the Olympics in August.

“I won’t invite the overseas based players for the domestic camps, it’s just too hard and really they’re playing at the moment in professional set ups, so they’re getting good training at the moment, getting fitter and fitter and getting match time, which is probably what I’d want more of our players to be doing,” Stajcic said.

“They’ll probably come back during the FIFA window when we’ve got some matches in May and June, then hopefully we’ll all be together from July 1, which will give us a month and two days together - precious time together for the national team.”