Sam Kerr is not placing a date on her return to the pitch as her ACL restoration nears its finish forward of the upcoming 2024/25 Barclays Ladies’s Tremendous League season.
The striker, who prolonged her contract at Chelsea for an additional two years this summer time, missed out on an enormous chunk of final season after being struck down by damage in January.
The devastating blow, which occurred in Morocco at a heat climate coaching camp, meant Kerr missed out on Chelsea’s nail-biting title race and the chance to signify her nation on the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Though claiming this week that she is “near getting again on the sphere”, Kerr pressured she is not speeding again.
Talking to Optus Sport, the 31-year-old defined: “The damage is nice. I am not placing a date on my return, simply ensuring I get it proper and ensuring I really feel good earlier than I get again on the pitch.
“I imply, it is my second ACL, so I do know it’s essential take the time, it’s essential ensure that it is proper and I am doing all the things I can. However there’s undoubtedly no rush for me, I wish to ensure that I can play for a lot of extra years to come back.”
The striker rapidly grew to become one of many world’s most well-known gamers after signing with Chelsea forward of the second half of the 2020/21 season. Final yr, her spectacular performances on the pitch noticed her named runner-up for the Ladies’s Ballon d’Or, having completed third the earlier two years.
Chelsea Soccer Membership can affirm striker Sam Kerr has sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) damage throughout our heat climate coaching camp in Morocco.
— Chelsea FC Ladies (@ChelseaFCW) January 7, 2024
Forward of her damage, she’d scored 99 profession targets for Chelsea and will definitely be seeking to construct upon that quantity when she’s absolutely recovered. Throughout her restoration, nonetheless, Emma Hayes confirmed her departure from the membership, which means Kerr will make a return below new supervisor Sonia Bompastor.
Regardless of admitting that the primary few days after Hayes’ exit felt a “bit bizarre”, Kerr praised the character Bompastor has dropped at the group.
“Sonia’s are available and performed very well to implement her personal character on the group, and we’re all having fun with it thus far,” she stated. “Initially, she’s French and he or she’s very French and I believe she’s bought a superb ba;lance of getting a joke and having amusing, but in addition fairly strict and to the purpose, which I believe we like and we wanted.
“I believe she appears actually, actually good and actually robust, in a great way.”
Chelsea will likely be aiming for a sixth consecutive WSL title subsequent season – one thing Kerr clearly needs to play a pivotal position in – however lifting the Champions League is one in every of her essential ambitions subsequent yr.
“We’d like to win the Champions League, that is the one we wish,” she revealed. “I believe yearly that is what we shoot for. We have fallen brief just a few years in a row and hopefully Sonia brings that to this membership. However, clearly, we wish to win as many championships as we are able to.
“We might like to retain the league once more, get the Conti Cup again, get the FA Cup again, however the principle one for us is the Champions League, and we’re going for that this yr.”
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