Sam Kerr's injury represents three issues as Chelsea eye European and WSL glory
The thing about sustained greatness is that there’s always the risk of acclimatising. Somehow, the world grows accustomed to seeing it over and over again and the sparkle glitters less.
This was never the case with Sam Kerr. The Chelsea and Australia striker could produce something ridiculous and audacious on command without fail and yet, this phenomenon never stopped feeling phenomenal.
And that is why Chelsea find themselves with a problem. The Matildas star ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the reigning champion’s warm weather camp in Morocco.
The injury represents three issues. It is the second time Kerr has suffered an ACL injury in her career. The 30-year-old is the latest high-profile women’s footballer to succumb to the injury after a year effectively defined by it, re-opening the conversation around women footballer's disproportionate ACL injury rate in the face of the game's growth.
Australia will now be without their star player for the summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, making it two summers in a row that Kerr’s summer exploits with the national team have been scuppered by injury.
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More immediate, though, is that Kerr’s injury means Blues boss Emma Hayes is now without her starting striker for the second half of a cramped and competitive season in which the Blues are still competing on all fronts. Chelsea currently sit three points clear of rivals Manchester City at the top of the WSL table, while also topping their Champions League group.
After recovering from a shin injury sustained on the eve of the Women’s World Cup over the summer, Kerr’s influence to help Chelsea reach this place is evident. She’s scored nine goals in 12 appearances across all competitions while recording another three assists.
Before Kerr’s injury, Hayes underscored Chelsea’s habit of impressing during the season’s second half, a habit that will now need to be accounted for without one of its key curators.
Here are the raw numbers: Kerr has scored 99 games in 128 matches since joining Chelsea in 2019, 58 of which have arisen from 75 WSL appearances, a frankly ludicrous execution rate. The result is four WSL titles on the bounce, three FA Cup titles and two Conti Cup titles.
Lauren James' influence on Chelsea's season will need to be large in the face of Kerr's absence (Photo by Matt McNulty - The FA/The FA via Getty Images)What those statistics – even in their remarkable rawness – don’t depict is how many of those goals represent big game moments.
Kerr’s first-ever Chelsea goal arrived in a 4-1 victory over London rivals Arsenal. In fact, 21 of her 58 league goals have been match-winners, with six arriving in the last 15 minutes.
Despite many reflections of last season concluding that Kerr hadn’t reached her usual heights, she still supplied these moments: a last-gasp equaliser at the Emirates against Arsenal in the league; the only goal in the historic FA Cup final against Manchester United.
Such is the trademark of a clutch player. Finding a way to replace this clutch quality in the coming months will be critical to Hayes’ side’s bid for domestic and European glory.
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Sam Kerr was injured while away with the Chelsea squad in Morocco (PA)Hayes has options. The recent scintillating form of Lauren James, who leads Chelsea’s league goal-scoring charts with seven, is suggestive that the 21-year-old is swiftly becoming the player many had tipped as more than capable of taking over Kerr’s reins, though the responsibility on James’ shoulders will be significantly higher.
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The bright performances from fellow England international Aggie-Beever Jones is also a positive in terms of a potential game changing element in the absence of Kerr.
Chelsea also forked out plenty of money to sign USWNT striker Mia Fishel from Tigres in the summer, while also adding fellow USWNT forward Catarina Macario to their roster from French giants Lyon.
While injury to Kerr was arguably not likely on the list of reasons for Macario's or Fishel’s signings, the fact the promising goal-scorer is available and viable as a back-up is testament to Hayes’ painstaking succession planning.
Chelsea's Sam Kerr celebrates after scoring her team's equaliser during the FA Women's Super League match between Arsenal and Chelsea. (Photo by Harriet Lander - Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)Fishel has already been tossed into the deep-end earlier in the season during Kerr's recovery from injury, and the 22-year-old showed positive signs of adapting to the rigour and speed of the WSL.
Meanwhile, Hayes took time ahead of Morocco’s training camp to explicitly point out the return of Catarina Macario from her own ACL injury, hailing Macario as a 'new signing'.
The 24-year-old will certainly feel that way, and while patience will be needed as she bids to return to full competitive fitness, Macario's experience in the Champions League will be crucial as Chelsea's multi-front season progresses.
How Chelsea cope without Kerr remains to be seen, but the club can count themselves one of the few lucky sides who have the depth and quality to potentially replace even the most seemingly inimitable players.
That injury to Kerr - whose contract with the club runs out in the summer - coincides with Hayes' final season in west London is a cruel twist of fate, but one that might just provide necessary fuel.
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