Sam Kerr, Mary Fowler on track to return in time for 2026 Asian Cup
The Matildas are sweating on Sam Kerr and Mary Fowler as Australian football braces for the prospect of a nightmare situation.
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The Matildas are banking on Mary Fowler and Sam Kerr.
The 2026 AFC Asian Cup kicks off in Australia on March 1 next year and the two biggest names for the Matildas, and their biggest scoring threats, are in a race against time to be fit for the tournament.
It’s been 18 months since Kerr suffered her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and she is yet to make her return to professional football.
The 31-year-old’s partner Kristie Mewis welcomed their first child earlier this year, and Kerr has been spending time in Perth while continuing her recovery as the Matildas played friendlies this year.
Hopefully Kerr takes to the pitch comes in the upcoming Women’s Super League season for Chelsea, where she will team up with new recruit Ellie Carpenter.
Meanwhile, Fowler will be racing the clock to recover from an (ACL) injury during Manchester City’s FA Cup match on April 13.
Fowler was having a career best season for Man City before the injury, and she is taking it one step at a time, cheering on her boyfriend Nathan Cleary at a Panthers game on the weekend.
ACL injuries typically take 12 months to recover from, but there is a significant chance Fowler will be sidelined for next year’s Asian Cup, which runs from March 1-21 across Perth, Gold Coast and Sydney, with the final to be held at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.
Veteran striker Michelle Heyman has been superb since returning to the national side, scoring more often than not in her appearances in the past few years. But having the firepower of Kerr and Fowler up front would be a massive coup to the Matildas.
And it appears that will be possible, with Matildas coach Joe Montemurro revealing Fowler is on track to return to play in November in what would be an incredibly quick recovery, just seven months after her injury.
“I spoke to her the other day, and she’s on track,” Montemurro told the SMH.
“She’s in Sydney at the moment doing some running. So she’ll join City, I think, in early October ... she’s looking good and she should be hopefully back playing before November.
“She’s a special player - not just for Australia, but worldwide.
“She’s (got) that X factor. And you need those X-factors in these tournaments. You need that player to unlock something at times. To have Mary involved will be really good.”
Former Matilda Sarah Walsh, who is the Chief Operating Officer of the Asian Cup, told news.com.au it would be a huge boost for the tournament if both Kerr and Fowler were available to play.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say having Sam Kerr and Mary Fowler back is going to be important to creating a buzz,” Walsh said.
“You want the teams to turn up on the day with their best players on the pitch and healthy.”
The Matildas captured Australia’s attention like never before in the 2023 FIFA World Cup on home soil, and Walsh is hoping there will be a similar buzz for the Asian Cup.
“We saw how everybody got behind the Matildas in 2023,” Walsh said.
“Eighty per cent of Australia watched the semi-final vs England — when has 80 per cent of Australia done anything or had consensus on anything. They’re a team that brings Australia together.
“You will not find an organiser that doesn’t admit that the host nation running deep is actually good for the tournament, whether it’s media, momentum, local, domestic momentum.”
“But and I think one of the exciting things for this tournament is that, for the first time, the player squad sizes have gone up to 26, which allows, you know a little bit more flexibility to bring in players that might not be match fit.
“We’re looking to deliver records for the Women’s Asian Cup. We want attendance records, we want broadcast records, we have no doubt that the stadiums will be rich and vibrant with modern Australia.”
Australia’s women’s football team won the Asian Cup in 2011 and the current team will be desperate to win the trophy after fourth place finishes at the 2023 World Cup and the Tokyo Olympics.
“It’s likely they will be one of the strong nations,” Walsh said of the Matildas.
“We’re not building a strategy around that, but it’s very important that they run deep. They’re one of the highest ranked nations in Asia, so.
“There are other stronger nations, Japan, North Korea, China, very strong teams. We saw many upsets in the qualifiers for the other teams to get here. Philippines on their day can produce a result.
“They have a new coach in Joe Montemurro who wants to invent his style into the team.
“We got to see a bit of that through the Panama matches and, they learned a lot from that window.
“They don’t have very many windows left, and he’s very new with the team. One of the advantages that he has is that he’s worked with a lot of the players, whether it be at Melbourne City or Arsenal.
“So he has that familiarity with some of the senior players, which is really important. They’ll calibrate quickly, and that could filter down to the younger players.”
Football Australia is hoping for capacity crowds at not only the Matildas’ games but matches featuring Asian nations including India, Japan, China, Iran and the Philippines.
“We’re building a multicultural festival of football that lives beyond Australia,” Walsh said.
“There are 3.4 million Australians that identify with the ancestry of those 11 nations that qualified, 1.1 million alone from India.
“So there’s massive communities here who rarely get to celebrate their culture. Food, music, and it’ll all be centred around football, but we want to create an experience for these communities.”
Continuing the multicultural theme, the Asian Cup will feature work from First Nations artists Shauna Hill and Grace Amidy across the tournament.
“We’ve worked with two First Nations artists to really embed that throughout the brand and integrate it into the matches, how city names have been translated.
“We want to make sure that the volunteers’ uniforms, every moment that symbolises the brand of the tournament will have First Nations embedded in that.
“We really do want to have the culture, flags in the stadium.”
Tickets are now on sale for the 2026 Asian Cup.
GROUPS FOR THE 2026 WOMEN’S ASIAN CUP
Group A: Australia, South Korea, Iran, Philippines
Group B: DPR Korea, China, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan
Group C: Japan, Vietnam, India, Chinese Taipei
EVERY MATILDAS GAME
Game 1: v Philippines on March 1 at Optus Stadium, Perth.
Game 2: v Iran on March 5 at Cbus Stadium, Gold Coast.
Game 3: v South Korea on March 8 at Accor Stadium, Sydney.
Originally published as Sam Kerr, Mary Fowler on track to return in time for 2026 Asian Cup
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