“Australia is crying.”
That was the dramatic title of the Australian ABC sports podcast on Monday period. The reason is the country’s biggest football star by Sam Kerr injury.
Kerr, 30, tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during Chelsea’s training camp in Morocco. With a long sick leave ahead, Kerr will not be seen wearing an Australian jersey at next month’s Olympic qualifiers. It is likely that the Paris Olympic tournament will also be missed if Australia advances there.
In an analysis published on the website of the ABC channel describes how injury brings “humanity back to the supernatural career”. Kerr is undoubtedly one of the most successful female soccer players of all time.
In Australia, he is the face of football’s rise, even though he was injured for much of the summer’s World Cup. Stadiums were filled to capacity for the first time in the country for women’s games in the middle of the World Cup frenzy, with Kerr at the center of everything.
The ABC article ends with the sentence that “maybe going back to the human kingdom is what he needs”. As if Sam Kerr is just a normal person when he can’t live a superhero life on the football field.
– I think that’s pretty much a misconception. At the end of the day, even top athletes are really ordinary people – simply people. It’s a disruptive point of view, Urheilu’s expert Essi Sainio thinking.
A supernatural, straight-up superhuman. The words have been associated with Kerr before. The equalizer in the World Cup semi-final against England was undeniably a magical performance, but Kerr himself doesn’t care about superhero comparisons.
Based on his own experiences, Sainio thinks that many top athletes themselves feel that they are some kind of superhumans.
– I don’t like the idea at all. As an elite athlete, I have experienced how some people think like that. I find that a damaging train of thought. I think there is a lot of it though. Many people may think that they are higher than others, to put it bluntly.
The high salaries of football players and the resources of the clubs create an illusion for their part. According to Sainio, it would be good for young people to learn that no one, despite their abilities, can ever be bigger than the sport or life.
In Australia, Sam Kerr is close to this, though. The international superstar of the rising sport is hugely popular in his country. On the other hand, the superlatives aimed at Kerr also tell about the growth of women’s sports and football – in the last decade, she could not have been a star of this size.
Essi Sainio is a former professional player who himself has experienced many injuries and their rehabilitation. He knows what kind of mental challenge Kerri faces in the rehabilitation process.
– Getting injured is always a big disappointment. Previous injuries do not soften it, but the disappointment can be even greater. In my opinion, dealing with emotions is a big part, says Sainio.
For Kerr, the quality of the injury is the aggravating factor. An ACL injury, which is common among female soccer players, requires a long rehabilitation, at worst up to a year, which is very slow, especially in the early stages. According to The Guardian as many as 13 English Super League players are currently sidelined with an ACL injury.
This is Kerri’s second career ACL injury. Because of the former, he missed the 2012 London Olympics.
Before last year, Kerr lasted a long time healthy, achieved a lot and, above all, scored a lot of goals. He moved from the United States to Chelsea in 2020. Since then, he has scored by far the most goals of any player in the Super League, 58. In the same time period, the second most effective player has been from Arsenal Vivianne Miedema 38 with his goal.
Kerr’s injury is a game-wise bad blow for Chelsea and above all for Australia. On the other hand, Australia had to play without Kerr for most of the summer World Cup. Sainio believes that Kerri still has his influence on the team, even if he can’t play.
– He is a role model on the field, but also off it. There is a lot of talk that he is a very good guy. It’s not going anywhere. His presence will certainly be important for Chelsea and Australia in a different role. It was already seen in the World Cup that he could live with the bench.
Kerr’s importance in Australia is so great that Herald Sun newspaper seriously considered on Monday whether he could be on the Olympic team with only a penalty shootout. According to the doctor interviewed by the newspaper, it is possible for Kerr to be physically in such a condition in July that he could very well take penalty kicks.
Off the field, Sam Kerr has been involved in doing, for example children’s books and thereby inspiring young people to football. There will be more time for similar projects in the coming months.