FIFA World Cup 2023:Inside Katrina Gorry’s incredible journey to the World Cup

As a single mother via IVF, Katrina Gorry promised her daughter she’d try to make the World Cup for the Matildas.

Katrina Gorry at Matildas training on Monday ahead of their World Cup match against Nigeria in Brisbane on Thursday. Picture: Adam Head

Katrina Gorry’s strengths are her strengths. The rugged physicality. The tenacious psychology. She runs as indefatigably and competitively as a greyhound chasing one of those fake rabbits. Tackles hard. All her crucial midfield duties are performed with a glare that could scare the air from the ball. Some folks are just built independent and tough.

Gorry was the Matildas’ best against Ireland. Hands down. Steph Catley received the player of the match award for the painstaking penalty that stripped paint from the walls when it went in. That was one of the great goal celebrations, don’t you think, as if they were bolting to Darling Harbour to toast the moment with a round of cocktails.

Regardless of Catley’s matchwinning goal, it was Gorry who gave the greatest contribution on the night, hounding the Irish, knocking them on their arses when required, giving as good as she got.

The foe kept looking at her as if realising they were messing with the wrong woman.

I hate the tag of supermum in sport. The real supermums, I suspect, are working two jobs and still finding a way to get to stop, kiss and leave. Yet you get the impression Gorry is a bit of a supermum. She always wanted to bring a human life into the world – love it, care for it, protect it, nurture it, all the things that warm a heart – and she decided 2021 was her year. She didn’t have a partner, but so what? Certain people just cannot be stopped.

She was in Norway. Injured, not playing. Might as well get pregnant, eh? She marched into an IVF clinic. I marvel at the bravery of that moment. I suspect no World Cup match can come even remotely close to matching it for nerves. Asked by the doctor for a preferred starting date for her IVF program, Gorry replied: “Well, we could start today?” You can rip into life as feverishly as sport.

Her period wasn’t due and yet 30 minutes before her appointment, it arrived, as if on cue. Returning to Australia after receiving the embryo, she crossed her legs on the flight “in case it fell out”. Covid restrictions forced her into 14 days of hotel quarantine.

The faint line started appearing on her pregnancy tests and Gorry basically spent those two weeks crying joyously in bed. What she wanted to happen – it was happening. She missed the Tokyo Olympics because she was heavily with child. Fast forward to the World Cup and she’s again with child – her daughter, Harper Ollie Gorry, who turns two next month.

“It makes me a bit emotional,” the 30-year-old says. “I promised Harp I would do whatever I could to get to the World Cup team. I feel like I did that and now to be about to play in the second game of the World Cup, at home in Brisbane, in front of family and friends, I feel like everything for me is just a dream come true. To repay them for all the sacrifices they’ve made along the way … and still to be looking after Harp every day.”

Gorry struck it lucky in one regard. About 90 per cent of IVF treatments fail at the first attempt. Yet the timing was no fluke. All things being equal, she figured she could return to the Australian team in time for the Cup.

“Gives me goosebumps to even think about it,” she said back then, juggling breastfeeding with training and playing and the around-the-clock requirements of an infant. Well, here she is in her home town of Brisbane for Thursday night’s game against Nigeria, all missions accomplished, goosebumps the size of golf balls.

She’s no longer riding solo in life, recently engaged to Swedish player Clara Markstedt. And she isn’t alone in looking after Harper. Her mother, Linda, is in camp with the Matildas. There’s another ­supermum. The designated babysitter for Harper. That’s gotta be a first for any World Cup squad, in any sport. A resident granny.

“I knew it was going to be a pretty tough road,” Gorry says. “Falling back in love with the game has changed everything for me. I enjoy every training now. I enjoy playing the game. My mum comes in to camp and for me, it’s just so special. It’s her birthday, the big 60. To have her in camp and for her to spend that time with Harper, Harper just absolutely adores her. I’ll be doing whatever I can to come home with a win so she gets to celebrate with us. For her, it’s so special to be on this journey with us. Every time I go out there, I go out there to make her and Harper proud.”

Gorry said of playing in Brisbane in front of her daughter, ­supergran, mates and family: “You couldn’t have written a better story, to be honest. For a lot of us, it’s probably a dream we’ve always dreamt but probably something we never knew was going to happen. To be living it is so special for all of us. We talk about it when we get together. I think we all think about it when we lay in our beds. To see our family on the ride with us, it really is so special. I obviously didn’t know how it was going to go when I first had Harp. Somehow mum has changed her whole schedule to be with us. To take care of her whenever I need help. It’s even more special to have them both in camp.”

Katrina Gorry with daughter Harper at Sydney airport on Friday. Picture: David Swift

On Harper’s backstage pass, Gorry added: “She just brings light to the end of a tough day. Or if we’re feeling a bit sad or lonely, she just walks in and makes everything happy. It’s been nice. I think the girls enjoy it. It kind of breaks up football mode for us and makes it feel like a family. She definitely loves all the girls, loves the attention.”

TV commentator David Basheer has been under fire in the ludicrous world of Twitter for a comment gone wrong when Gory was carving up the Irish. “Certainly, motherhood has not blunted her competitive instincts, that’s for sure,” Basheer said. “She is one fighter for Australia.” Basheer was howled down by assorted twits but give the bloke a break. It was a clumsy attempt at a compliment. Only one response matters, the one belonging to Gorry, and she couldn’t care less.

“I actually haven’t seen it,” she said. “I’ve heard about it. I don’t know. I don’t take things like that too personally. I don’t really look at it as a negative compliment or whatever. I can see how it got taken the wrong way. At the end of the day, I’m sure he didn’t kind of mean it in a negative way. Sometimes things just come out in the wrong way. It is what it is.”

Gorry’s defining moment against Ireland was the desperate sprint to thwart a one-on-one scoring chance in the first half. The greyhound caught the fake rabbit and ripped it to shreds. A subtle and equally revealing moment came when she had a go at scoring from a long-range shot. She was a million miles from Ireland’s goal and a million-to-one to make it … but had a crack anyway. That’s the spirit ahead of a danger match against the Nigerians.

“They’re going to be a tough team,” she said after captain Sam Kerr again failed to train. “They’re physical. They’re fast. They’re technically really, really good. Defensively we have to be on our A-game.

“We’ve got to work really hard. Make sure we stay compact and when we get on the ball, we’ve got to find the right passes, make sure we don’t get closed down through the centre and then hurt them on their wings.”