‘Make a decision’: Call coming on Kerr return

Interim Matildas coach Tom Sermanni won’t rush captain Sam Kerr back for a busy month of five games to end 2024 after Football Australia locked in a two-game series against Olympics silver medallists Brazil.

A clash against Germany, in Germany, will be followed by back-to-back matches against the Brazilians in Queensland as part of a packed schedule and a conversation with Kerr this week will determine whether she’s available for any of them.

Kerr hasn’t played anywhere since suffering a devastating ACL injury in training with Chelsea in January and fanciful hopes she could have returned for the failed Olympic campaign proved just that with the normal 12 month recover time making any chance of her playing for the Matildas this year a long-shot.

Sermanni, who said he would refrain from making “wholesale changes” to the current squad for the upcoming matches and a chat with Kerr would determine where she sits and she wouldn’t be rushed back to help improve on recent results.

“I’ve got to speak to her this week, find out where she’s at with her injury recovery and the rehab, and then make a decision,” Sermanni, a two-time Matildas coach who was brought in as a temporary replacement for Tony Gustavsson, said on Tuesday..

“The key thing for Sam is to get back healthy, and however much time that takes, she has to take that time.

“The team has come off a tournament where the results didn’t go as everybody had hoped, so it’s just bringing a bit of stability back now and getting the team to believe in themselves again.

“Really, this starting camp is the beginning of the preparation for the Asian Cup and that’s another important responsibility I have.”

Brisbane and the Gold Coast will play hosts, with the games at Suncorp Stadium on November 28 and Cbus Super Stadium on December 1.

They come after a scheduled showdown with Germany in Germany on October 29 and before two clashes with Chinese Taipei in Victoria, the first one just three days after the second clash with Brazil.

Sermanni will guide the team through those games, but said wouldn’t seek to take over the role on a permanent basis, having guided the team previously for a decade in two stints, and so would not make big player moves.

“The reality in any team is that change happens gradually,” he said.

“Yes, I would suggest over my period, depending on how long it is, there will be a degree of change, but the wholesale stuff is just not realistic.”

Australia and Brazil last met in 2021 when the Matildas recorded a 3-1 win and 2-2 draw in Sydney.

Sermanni, 70, the longest-serving Matildas coach, returned for a third stint in charge of the national team as an interim replacement for Tony Gustavsson, who stepped down after the failed Olympic campaign.