‘On the road to recovery’

Sam Kerr’s first Instagram post since knee surgery showed the striker in good spirits. It comes as research shows, as the women’s game rises, female footballers are more likely to suffer injury.

Samantha Kerr recovering in hospital. Picture: Instagram

Matildas star Sam Kerr has emerged from knee surgery upbeat and requesting Netflix recommendations as she starts her long journey back to the field.

Kerr was dealt the cruellest of blows, one certain to end her Paris Olympic dreams, when she tore her anterior cruciate ligament during a warm weather training camp in Morocco last week.

In her first foray on to Instagram since she had surgery, the 30-year-old appeared with her right leg bandaged and smiling with two thumbs up with the message “on the road to recovery” and asked her 1.8 million followers for shows to watch.

As people recommended TV series like Boy Swallows Universe, Lessons in Chemistry, Derry Girls, other fans jokingly suggested the documentary Matildas: The World At Our Feet.

The star striker received support from Matildas teammates Mackenzie Arnold, Hayley Raso and Ellie Carpenter, her Chelsea teammate Millie Bright, as well as encouragement from high-profile athletes such as English footballer Jesse Lingard and Aussie cricketer David Warner.

“Hope recovery goes well,” wrote Warner.

While Kerr’s Chelsea contract is up at the end of the season, it’s understood she remains in talks about re-signing to the English Women’s Super League team.

Several days ago Chelsea manager Emma Hayes, who will soon take charge of the US women’s football team, revealed the way Kerr had hurt herself was during an innocuous drill.

“She did it doing a football action she does every day; turning and shooting. It’s something very simple and innocuous,” she told Sky Sports. “I’m gutted for her, I’m gutted for the team.”

As the women’s game rises, and workloads and travel increases, ACLs have felled some big names in the game.

Kerr is not the first star international female footballer to be felled by an ACL injury in recent times. England’s Beth Mead and Leah Williamson, the Netherlands’ Vivianne Miedema and Canada’s Janine Beckie all missed the World Cup in Australia because of ACL injuries.

Global soccer players’ union FIFPRO released new research last December which indicated that increased demands on professional women’s football players has resulted in a notable increase in knee, thigh, hamstring and ACL injuries.

The analysis shows that elite women players who sustained ACL injuries made more appearances and had more instances of less than five days between matches.