Alex Chidiac is back from the international wilderness, drafted into the Matildas squad as a replacement for Melbourne Victory team-mate Kyra Cooney-Cross.
Despite her stellar form for Victory en route to back-to-back Liberty A-League Championships, Chidiac was initially overlooked by Australia ahead of next month’s friendlies against trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in Townsville (April 8) and Canberra (April 12),
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But Chidiac has been called into the national team after Cooney-Cross was ruled out due to medical reasons.

Chidiac, who was named the 2021-22 A-League Women Victory Medallist, was last part of the Matildas squad in June last year, though the 23-year-old has not played for Australia since March 2019.
“First of all, I’m really happy for Chids that she’s found the love of the game again as she’s had a couple of tough years,” said Matildas head coach Tony Gustavsson.
“We’ve always known that she has a magical left foot; her visionary attack is unique. But she needed to find her love for the game again and find her form and have confidence.
“We supported her in that journey that she wanted to focus on playing game consistently finding her confidence in her form.
“We had a long conversation back in Sweden before the Olympics when she wasn’t selected to the roster, in terms of her focus points and playing with more intensity. Her next step now is to keep this form and play consistently at as high a level as possible.”
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