It has been greater than two years since Sam Kerr’s evening out in south London led to a dispute with a taxi driver and shortly afterwards a heated alternate in a police station. Within the meantime the star striker has led the Matildas at a Ladies’s World Cup, added to the trophies and honours she has received with membership aspect Chelsea, and been sidelined for greater than a yr with a severe knee harm.
Kerr additionally had a legal cost stemming from that turbulent evening in January 2023 hanging over her head, after she was charged with racially aggravated harassment for calling a police officer “fucking silly and white”. That authorized case lastly got here to an in depth this week when the 31-year-old was discovered not responsible, however the shock waves from the incident that gripped soccer followers and extra informal observers on either side of the globe are nonetheless to abate.
With the trial and what Kerr described in a press release as a “difficult interval” now behind her, she will stay up for returning to the pitch throughout the subsequent month for the primary time since tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in January final yr. She continues to benefit from the assist of her membership and sponsors akin to Nike, and is awaiting the arrival of a primary baby collectively together with her companion, Kristie Mewis. However what the longer term holds for Kerr and the Australian girls’s soccer crew is way much less sure.
Kerr has been the face of the Matildas for the perfect a part of a decade and captain since 2019. Her lofty standing within the nationwide aspect, on and off the pitch, has been obvious since lengthy earlier than Kerr was handed the armband, and has helped her to play a crucial position in attracting a brand new and youthful era of followers to girls’s soccer and the broader sport. But Soccer Australia is now left with a troublesome resolution to make on whether or not or to not strip their star participant, and most marketable commodity, of the Matildas captaincy.
With Kerr out of motion as a result of harm for the reason that cost turned public final March, FA has been in a position to wait and see how the case and trial performed out earlier than making a name. For the reason that jury’s verdict has been handed down, the governing physique has solely dedicated to supporting Kerr, stopping in need of endorsing her future as Matildas captain and hinting at broader considerations. “Soccer Australia invests closely in constructing the behavioural requirements and expectations of all concerned with our sport, particularly for all our nationwide crew gamers, the place management comes with added tasks on and off the sector,” FA stated in a press release.
FA can solely kick the can down the street for a lot longer. Kerr will miss the SheBelieves Cup later this month, when the Matildas play Japan, the US and Colombia, as she continues her rehabilitation with Chelsea. However a return to taking part in with the WSL membership over the following month would go away her nearing full health and certain out there for the Matildas’ subsequent set of fixtures – a pair of worldwide friendlies on dwelling soil in opposition to South Korea.
If FA is ready for Kerr to hitch a Matildas camp to debate her position throughout the crew in particular person, the choice on the captaincy would possibly solely be introduced within the days earlier than the primary pleasant in Sydney on 4 April. There are few, if any, different causes to delay the choice till then.
Signal as much as Australia Sport
Get a day by day roundup of the most recent sports activities information, options and remark from our Australian sports activities desk
Privateness Discover: Newsletters might include data about charities, on-line adverts, and content material funded by outdoors events. For extra data see our Privateness Coverage. We use Google reCaptcha to guard our web site and the Google Privateness Coverage and Phrases of Service apply.
after e-newsletter promotion
Kerr ought to don’t have anything extra to reveal about her doomed evening out in London – her inebriated state within the lead as much as hailing a taxi and vomiting out of its window is now recognized to anybody with a passing curiosity within the case, not to mention all that adopted in what she has referred to as a “traumatic night”. However no matter what occurred in London two years in the past, the Matildas captain nonetheless has a lot to elucidate for blindsiding FA when she failed to tell her nationwide bosses of the cost and left CEO James Johnson after which head coach Tony Gustavsson to seek out out greater than a yr later via media reporting. FA’s belief in its girls’s skipper should certainly have been strained, if not left nearer to a breaking level.
Whether or not Kerr even desires to proceed as Matildas captain stays to be seen. For all of her inspirational and unimaginable feats on the pitch, she has hardly ever appeared to relish the off-field tasks that include main a nationwide crew. After a chronic interval beneath an intense highlight, she may hardly be blamed for desirous to step away from any added consideration. Kerr has additionally entered her 30s after first taking part in at an elite degree 17 years in the past, and is on the comeback path from a second ACL tear, all whereas the nationwide squad goes via a interval of regeneration.
Kerr has been the shining mild in a golden era of Australian footballers who’ve received an Ladies’s Asian Cup and completed runner-up twice, reached the final 4 at a Ladies’s World Cup and an Olympic Video games, and turn into the preferred crew within the land. She could have a second alternative to play a number one position in lifting a world trophy on dwelling soil when the 2026 Asian Cup is held in Australia – it simply may not be as Matildas captain.
