Ellie Carpenter revealed the young striker is on track to feature against Canada – and why that’s crucial, writes Tom Smithies
It was the injury update on a crucial striker for the Matildas which didn’t cause a stir nationally – but still has huge significance for Australia’s World Cup dream.
While the focus was on Sam Kerr’s recovery from a calf injury, Mary Fowler’s staged recovery from an accidental concussion seems on track as she returned to training along with Kerr on Saturday morning.
Fowler will still require sign-off from an independent doctor at some point before Monday morning to be available, but Ellie Carpenter suggested that is seen as a formality – opening the door for her to start against Canada.
While Kerr’s recovery has been the understandable focus, Carpenter revealed the status that Fowler has among her teammates at 20 years of age.
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“Mary is great, she’s recovering really well,” Carpenter said. “She was on the pitch as well today. Mary is an amazing young player. I would say she’s quite senior in the team to be honest.
“The way she strikes the ball, the way she can change the game at any given moment, she’s massive. We really missed her the other night and I’m really excited that she will be back available for Monday. She’s amazing to have on the field.”
There was also insight from Carpenter on how much the 3-2 loss to Nigeria has stung the team, with their World Cup aspirations now dependent on beating Canada on Monday.
A defence breached three times has some soul-searching to do, and the Lyon rightback admitted the review of that performance had been painful.
“It’s not great to concede, and as soon as that (final) whistle went, we turned the page on it in the (team) circle after the game, we wanted to park that performance.
“We obviously wanted to learn of what went wrong. We did that review straight after the game so we could get that out of our system, turn the page and full focus for Monday.
“You can’t be dwelling on those performances because that just takes up mental drainage from the game. As a back line, obviously, we have a job to do on Monday.
“We know what we need to do and fix up, I guess those mistakes that happened that night.”
That’s part of the equation, and the other half is converting more of the chances created even in Kerr and Fowler’s absence, to give the side the best possible chance of defeating the Olympic champions.
“Having Sam available, having Mary available, they’re two of our world class strikers back in the selection pool and back in the squad,” she said.
“At the end of the day, it’s just being clinical in front of goal and we know that’s where we need to be on our ‘A game’ on Monday night.
“We need players to step up, we need players to rise to the occasion.”
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