The sound that convinced Sam Kerr her return from injury was complete

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Sam Kerr’s return from an ACL injury was so taxing, both mentally and physically, that even the mere mention of how long she’d been out for was grinding her gears.

“I wanted it to just be over,” she told her soon-to-be sister-in-law, former United States international Sam Mewis, on her podcast Friendlies.

“I hate those moments where it’s like: ‘Oh, my god, 624 days.’ I just wanted to be on the field, so everyone could stop talking about it.”

Her long-awaited return earlier this month, then, was rewarding in a number of ways.

Having sat on the bench as an unused substitute for Chelsea’s Women’s Super League clash against Manchester City on September 6, the Matildas superstar was finally summoned a week later for their away clash with Aston Villa.

As she prepared to come on as a substitute in the 75th minute, she heard the applause from Chelsea’s travelling contingent. That was, as she said, a “nice moment” - but not as nice as what came next.

Sam Kerr celebrates after her team’s victory against Aston Villa.

“I heard all the Villa fans booing,” she said.

“And I was like, ‘Yes, I’m back. I’m getting booed.’

“I just wanted to get on the pitch. I hated that I knew everyone was [talking about me]. I knew the commentators were talking about it. I knew that everyone was talking about it. And I was like, this should have been like a year ago, but whatever.”

What came after that was even better: a goal, in the third minute of stoppage time, to help seal a 3-1 victory. Scrappy as it was, it won’t find a home on Kerr’s highlight reel - unlike the “out of body experience” of scoring that goal against England at the 2023 Women’s World Cup - but it was momentous all the same, and not just because it was her 100th for the club.

Sam Kerr enters the fray after … well, too long on the sidelines.

“I was relieved, and just kind of like, laughing,” she said.

“And I think like the response that the girls gave me was really nice and melted my heart … [and] I just wanted to thank the Chelsea fans, because throughout these last few months, they’ve been so supportive of me. Some of them probably lost a little bit of faith in, like, me or forgot what I could do on the pitch.

“I’ve had so many people over the last year say, ‘Oh, she’ll never get back to what she was.’

“It felt nice to be able to remind people. I don’t even need a whole game. I can score an important goal in 20 minutes, whether it’s my first game back or not.”

The comeback trail for Kerr was about twice as long as it should be for an ACL injury; it was a “pretty crap” experience, she said, but one that was put into perspective by the arrival of her first child, Jagger, with partner Kristie.

“It wasn’t like I was sitting off the park, and I was training and having a great old time. It was doctor’s appointment after doctor appointment, flying here, flying there, trying to fix my knee,” she said.

“I felt like every time … say I had six good weeks, then I’d have two really bad weeks. I had maybe like seven or eight setbacks. Especially when it got to the pointy end of [ast] season, it’s tough to not be involved in those games. As a competitor, you just want to be out there, and you just want to show people what you’re made of. And that was really hard for me.

“The good part of it was you play football for so long, you kind of think it’s your identity and it’s who you are. But with the time off, I got to spend more time with Kristie. We got to go home, see my family. We had Jags. So there was things that happened that really kept me going. Now I have a different look on football, and I don’t hang so much of my life on it, I guess.”

Kerr turned 32 earlier this month, and though that might suggest she’s in the twilight of her career, she insists that she’s not. The impending Women’s Asian Cup in Australia gives her another marquee event on home soil to look forward to, but her outlook stretches well beyond that, and even the next World Cup in 2027.

In a recent interview with Nine, she said she has “way more in my locker than one more” World Cup - but when the time comes that she does retire, a career as a coach could beckon.

Inspired by the way her former coach at Chelsea, Emma Hayes, used to make her and her teammates feel comfortable, Kerr doesn’t mind the idea of following in her footsteps.

“I think it’s so important in the women’s game to make players feel like they have the environment to be able to perform at their best,” Kerr said.

“That doesn’t mean everyone’s going to start, but it means that everyone is going to be playing at their best and feel valued. I would want to base my coaching style off [that] if I ever became a coach. Maybe I’ll be an assistant.”

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