Addresses Sam Kerr’s absence from press conference before Matildas v Japan final
The Accor Stadium press conference room has a lot to answer for when it comes to Sam Kerr.
This was where, three years ago, the Matildas captain pretended he was ready to play in the next day’s 2023 World Cup opener, when in fact he injured his left calf and had no chance.
Immediately after the 1-0 win against Ireland in the group stage, then-coach Tony Gustavsson was quick to admit that he knew Kerr was injured as he sat next to him with a poker face.
This ruse angered some sections of the public and led to praise from others who viewed Gustavsson as a fraud or simply a coach who knew that beating an unsuspecting opponent sometimes required a gamble.
Regardless, traces of this incident clearly remained the day before Australia’s Asian Cup final against Japan, when Kerr was excluded from the pre-match press conference he was supposed to attend along with coach Joe Montemurro.
Kerr was listed as the selected player representative in an email alert sent at 4:44 p.m. Thursday. Then, at 8.53pm Football Australia sent out an updated alert listing Ellie Carpenter as his replacement.
Naturally, when the media arrived at Sydney Olympic Park and entered the same press conference room on Friday, the unexplained change was one of the first questions.
“Sam put on a lot of pressure,” Montemurro said. “I think we like to share the love with all of that, so I think it’s even more special to have Ellie here after the great game she played.
“But Sam is fine. Everything is fine. We’re all ready to go. I’m very happy for him and proud of him because he really showed in this tournament why he is a world-class player. And as I keep saying, world-class players manage the moments in big tournaments. He did it.”
And that’s it. There’s nothing to see here. But everyone was still wondering: Was Kerr fit to play? Had he aggravated his knee? Did all those minutes have an impact so soon after returning from such a long ACL rehab?
The answer may come at Matilda’s training session on Friday afternoon, when the media will be allowed to watch the first 15 minutes (effectively the warm-up) and see if Kerr is there.
