Nathan Cleary and Mary Fowler in airport reunion as Matildas star returns to Sydney

Nathan Cleary and Mary Fowler have been spotted sharing a kiss at Sydney Airport in what is the latest chapter in the budding romance between the Aussie sporting power couple. Penrith's three-time NRL premiership winner Cleary reunited with his superstar Matildas girlfriend on Tuesday night after the 20-year-old flew home on an Emirates flight from Dubai.

Cleary was in good spirits as he picked up the Women's World Cup hero at the arrivals gate, before embracing Fowler upon her return to Australia. Pictures published by News Corp showed the pair sharing a hug and a kiss, before walking out of the airport with huge smiles on their faces as Cleary helped Fowler with one of her suitcases.

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The reunion between the Aussie sporting couple was their first since November 2 when Cleary was seen farewelling Fowler at Perth airport, having watched the Matildas forward star in Australia's Olympic Games qualifiers. Rumours of a relationship between the pair were sent into overdrive after Cleary attended the Matildas' 8-0 thumping of the Philippines in Perth.

The Penrith star and Fowler were then later spotted cuddling up to one another at a park in the WA capital, before the Matildas star re-joined the rest of her squad ahead of the 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei. Following the Matildas' Olympic qualifiers, however, Fowler flew back to the UK to resume her season with Manchester City, while Cleary went on an overseas holiday to the United States.

Cleary has since returned to pre-season training with Penrith after suffering a serious knee injury in the NRL grand final win over Brisbane. It's unclear how much time he'll get to spend with Fowler while she's back in Australia, with the Matildas star's next game for Manchester City not until January 15.

Mary Fowler pulls out of Matildas fan event

The reunion between the new 'it couple' of Australian sport appeared to be in jeopardy when it was announced that Fowler had pulled out of a fan event this week. Fowler was meant to attend a fan experience at CommBank Stadium in Parramatta, but Matildas officials later announced that she was no longer attending. Fowler was instead due to make an appearance at Rise & Shine Kindergarten in Carlton in Sydney's south on Wednesday morning after being announced as its new ambassador.

Fowler and Cleary haven't seen each other for over a month, despite both being in North America around the same time earlier in December. Cleary was in the US for a holiday, while Fowler was playing for the Matildas in two international friendlies in Canada.

But according to reports they never met up, with Cleary having to come home to begin pre-season training with the Panthers last week. The next chance for the couple to reunite might not be until February, when Cleary will travel to the UK for the World Club Challenge against Wigan.

Cleary was somewhat taken aback when quizzed about his girlfriend at the recent GQ Awards. Asked "where's Mary", the 26-year-old responded: "I knew this was coming... She’s busy... I'm just here by myself... no plus one."

The Penrith star has admitted that he's not entirely comfortable about the intense public interest in his love life and has repeatedly suggested that he'd like it to remain as private as possible. “I haven’t had too many people look into my personal life. But it’s just what comes with it. It’s something that I can’t control,” he said. I just got to keep moving on and not read into it too much.”

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