11 January 2024 , 12:35
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Chelsea manager Emma Hayes could not hide her disappointment at losing Sam Kerr for the remainder of the season, admitting: "I'm gutted".
Kerr, 30, ruptured her ACL during the reigning league champions’ warm-weather training camp in Portugal over the weekend, becoming the latest high-profile women’s player to suffer the injury and marking the second time the Australian international has done so in her career. The club confirmed Kerr suffered the injury and would undergo surgery on Thursday.
Hayes shared her dismay at the loss of one of her most important players ahead of a busy second half of the season, in which Chelsea are the only English team still competing on all fronts and are bidding to claim a first-ever European title under Hayes.
“I’m gutted for her, gutted for the team,” Hayes told Sky Sports. “These things happen in football, she knows that. The important thing is we’re here to support her. The recovery, the rehab, it starts today.”
When pressed on how Kerr sustained the injury, Hayes said the “very simple and innocuous” football action of turning and shooting which Kerr “does every day” was the culprit.
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“Like I’ve said many times, this is not the moment to talk about how things happen,” Hayes said. “Injuries do happen in football, they happen in men’s and women’s, sometimes we have a confirmation basis around ACL injuries but they happen in the sport, regardless of why they happen.
"I don’t think today is about that, it’s about letting her know that she’s with her Chelsea family and we’re looking after her.”
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)Share messages of support for Sam Kerr in the comments section
Kerr has been an inimitable force in Hayes’ success since joining the club in 2019. Kerr has scored 99 games in 128 matches since joining Chelsea in 2019, 58 of which have arisen from 75 WSL appearances. The result is four WSL titles on the bounce, three FA Cup titles and two Conti Cup titles.
The striker's insatiable rate of scoring in big games and supplying big wins is well-documented, an attribute that historically becomes key in Chelsea's second half of the season, though Hayes will now have to find a new secret weapon as she bids to end her Chelsea tenure on another historic high.
“I know Sam would expect me to say nothing less: our focus has to be on the players that are fit," Hayes said. "We have a quality squad. It’ll be a good challenge for me as a coach to find those solutions. I trust in the squad that we have, and we’ve added to that and I think the focus and attention has to go on the players that are here.”
Hayes said Kerr will remain with the club as she undergoes rehabilitation. She said: "She has to be here, she’ll be doing about eight hours of rehab every day, she’ll be here."