Women’s World Cup: Running on adrenaline, the Matildas are ready, willing and able

Sam Kerr’s calf injury actually feels pretty good. Lost fitness is the real issue. The Matildas captain will be running on adrenaline in the World Cup semi-final against England.

Not enough miles in her legs after her three-week injury: Matildas captain Sam Kerr at Tuesday’s training session at Kogarah Oval in Sydney’s south. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Sam Kerr is running on adrenaline. Endurance has been lost. Her calf is OK but she gets knackered quickly. Ten-thousand steps a day? No way.

The Matildas captain did well against France. But she overdid it. Desperate to make an impact off the bench, she ran a million miles an hour to all parts of the pitch, like she was back in the Under 8s when you just follow the ball wherever it goes. Her fitness has faded because her leg injury did more than rule her out of matches. She hasn’t been able to hit the treadmill at the team hotel and punch out a 10km run.

There’s not enough miles in her legs. She was completely stuffed after the win over France, guzzling water like she’d completed a marathon, doubling over with fatigue. Running on fumes. The smell of an oily rag.

The calf muscle is no longer the major problem. It’s the unavoidable consequence of sitting around for three weeks. The evaporation of endurance will force Matildas coach Tony Gustavsson, again, to decide whether to start or finish with his skipper for the World Cup semi-final against Eng­land. It can’t be both. She isn’t in good enough nick.

Prediction? He’ll go with the latter. Again. “When it comes to Sam, she pushed through more minutes against France than we hoped for, to be honest,” Gustavsson said on Tuesday. “One of the reasons we kept her on the bench was that we weren’t certain how many minutes she had coming back from that calf injury – but also the limited training minutes she had.

“The way she pushed through was fantastic and impressive, both from the mental and physical ­aspects.”

Kerr had been slated for 45 minutes or so against France. That was all she had in her underworked legs, thought Gustavsson. The adrenaline kicked in and Kerr ended up playing 65 minutes when the battle of Brisbane went to extra time and penalties.

“She trained today,” Gustavsson said. “She will be available. There will be a meeting tonight, again, to see, again, the best starting XI and the best finishing XI. Whether we plan for 90 minutes with Sam or for extra time – there will be some tough decisions tonight. Again. But Sam is definitely available for selection.”

The Matildas are downplaying the Australia-England sporting rivalry. Perhaps because Sweden’s Gustavsson has no idea what we’re all banging on about. Asked if being knocked out of a home World Cup by England was unthinkable, goalkeeper Mackenzie Arnold said, “Being knocked out by anyone is kind of unthinkable. There’s probably a lot of English people that would love to see us knocked out by England but I think there’s more Australians that would love to see England knocked out by us.”

Matildas versus England. Folks will be hanging from the rafters. Who’s favourite? Gustavsson didn’t want to say it. Then he did anyway

“If you look at rankings, they’re favourites,” he said.

“If you look at where their players play – they have starting players in top clubs in top leagues all over the world, not just their 11 but, like, 15 or 16.

“When you compare that to us, we have bench players on those teams. We have players in the A-League Women, we have players in mid-table teams in Sweden.

“If you look at resources fin­ancially, obviously they’re a massive favourite going into this game.

“But if you add the belief we have, and the one thing we have that they don’t have – the support, the belief from the fans.

“These players are on a mission and they’re not done yet,” Gustavsson said.

“This team has shown they’re ready, willing and able to break down barriers and write history.”