Take a moment to think of Sam Kerr. What comes to mind?
Is it goals? Records? A catalogue of club silverware?
For Karly Roestbakken, she thinks not only of the Kerr of today – the global phenom of world football who fronts the cover of FIFA 23, and regularly contends for Ballon d’Or honours.
When Roestbakken thinks of Sam Kerr, at first she thinks of the setbacks in her story.
She thinks of the string of serious injuries which hampered the early years of Kerr’s career, and the repeat effort from the current Matildas captain to come back stronger.
That’s what resonates with Roestbakken the most, as she navigates a recovery journey of her own, making the way back to playing regular minutes after a foot injury which has taken two surgeries and the best part of two years for the prized Matildas prospect to overcome.
“You kind of use other people’s experiences to go: ‘Well, they did it so why can’t I do it?’” Roestbakken says. “Elite athletes who have gone through things, I know a few athletes that missed the Olympics, they missed major tournaments, but they’ve come back even stronger. It’s so important to have people like that.
“Use Sam as an example: she had some pretty big injuries, with her ACL and always having niggles, and now look at what she’s been able to do?
I think it’s so important to have those people you can kind of relate to… so if I can be that for someone else who is going through something, then that honestly means the world to me because I do the same.
Roestbakken’s story is now one of perseverance in itself. A story of growing up, of “getting a bit of a backbone”, and realising “you’re not the only one going through stuff like this.”
“They come out the other end, and you can too,” Roestbakken says. “I think that’s so important.”
Roestbakken speaks to KEEPUP after another day on the training track at Melbourne City. The defender is in the midst of her first season at the club, after two stints at Canberra United throughout her teenage years.
A former Liberty A-League Young Footballer of the Year, Roestbakken burst onto the domestic scene at Canberra United as a 15-year-old, scoring in her second appearance to become the second-youngest A-League Women goalscorer (behind, you guessed it, Sam Kerr).
In 2019, Roestbakken stormed into the Matildas squad, replacing the injured Laura Brock (née Alleway) and making her national team debut in a 3-2 win over Brazil at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Roestbakken was one of the exciting success stories of the last World Cup swing. But now, she heads into the current World Cup year having battled back from a lingering foot injury which first emerged in late-2020.
It turned out to be a tarsal condition in which two bones were connected where they shouldn’t – a condition originally missed through the initial months of discomfort. Surgery in April of 2021 ruled Roestbakken out of contending for a spot in Australia’s Olympic Games squad; pain resurfaced in February of 2022, just weeks after Roestbakken was overlooked for the Matildas’ squad for the 2022 AFC Asian Cup in January.
Pain led to a stress fracture, and then came a second round of surgery in June of 2022.
“The initial injury, it’s pretty complicated,” Roestbakken says. “It’s just how my foot was. I was born with it, and it’s a bit of confusing, not many people get it.”
She continues: “I think last year was the most (difficult) for me. Having to miss some big things and goals I was working towards. Unfortunately it’s just the way sport is. I have learnt so much from it. This time, when I had to take the surgery, I had the best medical team around me, with national team (support)… they played a massive part and I trusted them so much.
I didn’t want to go through it again, but if it was to get better, to get back to playing so I wouldn’t have pain in my foot, I said it was quite an easy decision to take. Listening to them, I’m so grateful I did… as tough as it was, I learnt a lot from the first time, and I knew this time I could make it a lot better. I knew what I had to do.
Throughout it all, Roestbakken was meant to be living the dream. Signing for Norwegian juggernaut LSV Kvinner FK in April, 2020, the young defender was one of many Matildas to make a European move off the back of the 2019-20 A-League Women campaign.
Her stint abroad garnered less than 20 appearances across the following two years.
It was a dream move in both a professional and personal sense; Roestbakken’s father is Norwegian, and her grandmother, along with cousins, aunties and uncles, all reside in the Nordic country.
Throughout the most challenging period of her young career, Roestbakken was grateful to have such a strong support network whilst so far from home.
“Family is a big thing for me,” Roestbakken says. “I’d been there when I was younger, but to be able to live there when I (was) older, and get to experience the other side of me, and my father’s life, is something really special.
“I would have to drive maybe an hour and a half to my grandmas… she’s doing so well, she’s getting older but she’s still living by herself, she still cooks. I’d go over there and – you know how it is, everyone knows how it is at your grandmas – you get fed so well, you just go and have the best time and eat food. I just think that was so important. It just kind of takes your mind away from everything, and you do feel a little bit like you’re at home.
“That was really important for me in that time, even though I was still really far away from my home. Having that, the little things, going over there and eating food, talk about random stuff and have laughs.
I think It was so cosy. A lot of the girls pick on me because I always say that, I love the word cosy, I love things that are cosy. It’s the perfect way to explain it when I was over there. I was very lucky.
Roestbakken adds: “People always think I’m mature, that I’m a lot older than I am, and I think that’s because of the last couple of years. Being away from home, being overseas and also kind of growing up playing with women from a young age as well.
“I’ve grown up a lot, it’s opened my eyes. I’m just happy to be back at home and wanting to play football again.
I think going through that experience as well has made me realise that I will never not love football. I love football so much. It’s made me realise as well how much I miss it, and how much fun I have playing it.
“Back here, every day I turn up to training and I just love it. I think that’s one of the most important things to remember: a lot of the time people get so worked up in the pressure, and performing. But you have to love it, and you have to have fun as well. That’s always one of the things I say, have fun and work hard and it will come. I just missed playing football.”
Roestbakken has two substitute appearances under her belt this season, since returning to action in late December. The pain of a troublesome foot injury is subsiding; now it’s time to focus on accumulating regular minutes at City as she targets a late run toward the Matildas’ 2023 Women’s World Cup squad.
It’s a tall ask for a player whose rapid rise to Matildas stardom was halted by an extended injury layoff. But Roestbakken is no stranger to a late charge into World Cup contention; missing out on both the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the 2022 Asian Cup has only fuelled the fire within for a player determined to ensure Australia’s next major tournament is not one she watches from the stands.
“It’s never not been in my mind,” Roestbakken says. “It’s given me a fire, it’s given me a hunger. It’s something I want to chase. I want to get back into the mix… and having this time out, being sidelined for so long, you just realise how much you do want it.
“But the first thing is getting my foot 100%, playing games, getting minutes and performing as well, then whatever comes from it is a bonus. At the moment, it’s just playing football and getting minutes under my belt, playing with City and hopefully doing some good things with them this year. And then, whatever happens, happens.”
