Sam Kerr in fresh blow for Matildas as new details emerge around injured Aussie captain

Interim Matildas coach Tom Sermanni admits there's currently "no timeline" on Sam Kerr's return to the national side after explaining the captain's continued absence from the Aussie squad. The Matildas have assembled at their Europe-based camp as they look to put a disastrous Olympic Games campaign behind them when they play Switzerland on Friday evening local time (Saturday 5am AEDT), and then Germany three days later.

The Matildas were knocked out of the group stages of the Paris Olympic Games before long-time coach Tony Gustavsson stepped down from the role. Interim coach Sermanni is eyeing an improvement from his squad in their upcoming games and was hoping to have Kerr involved around the Matildas camp in a non-playing capacity but accepts the Aussie captain's recovery from a ruptured ACL is being carefully managed by her English club Chelsea.

"The key thing - and I have spoken to Sam - and the key thing that I think everyone stressed, the Chelsea staff, the Chelsea medical people, and our own people, is that it's really important for Sam to take as long as it takes to make sure she comes back fully without cutting any corners," Sermanni said. "And that's the process that she's taken.

The Matildas have obviously struggled without Kerr's incomparable goal-scoring threat, but even her presence around the playing group has been massive for the Aussies. Kerr's influence at training was praised during the Matildas' run to the World Cup semi-finals even when she was not fit enough to play the opening matches and her absence from the Olympic Games squad was a big blow for the Aussies.

Interim Matildas coach wanted Sam Kerr in Aussie camp

Sermanni says while he would have loved to have Kerr in and around the playing group in Europe, he understands the bigger picture around her recovery and long-term fitness. "At the moment, she's in the midst of that, and really having some important parts of her treatment," he added.

"So at this stage, she won't be joining us on this tour. What happens a bit later in the year, we'll address it at that time, because I honestly don't know. But again, you just go off the key premise in all of this is getting Sam back on the football field as safely as possible, and to make sure when she comes back, she's going to come back for a long time."

Matildas hoping to bounce back after Olympic Games flop

Sermanni is not involved in Football Australia's hunt for Gustavsson's permanent replacement as Matildas coach but is focused on picking them back up after the Paris Games debacle. "The team was a bit beaten up after the outcome of the Olympics - there's no point in denying that," Sermanni said. "And the confidence, I think, within the group, within the squad, was a bit low, because obviously this team has got high expectations.

"But athletes are resilient.To play at the top level, you have to be resilient. You have to come back and bounce back after bad results or bad tournaments. To be honest, I think the team did come into camp feeling a little bit low, but (after) a couple of days in the training field, everybody back together again, from my perspective, it's been upbeat and very positive."

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The interim Matildas coach says while the style of football his side plays in their next two games is important, a couple of confidence-boosting results would be even better. "There's two things that I'm looking to (achieve) in this camp. One is for the team to put in a really good, solid, positive performance, to bring back that confidence in the team," Sermanni added.

"But at the same time, it's really important to get results. So if someone gave me a choice right now to say, 'do you want a good performance, or do you want a result?', right at this moment in time, I would say 'we want a result.' And this team is fairly desperate to get back on a winning track again."

with AAP