Article body analysed
By IAN CHADBAND FOR AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: 10: 07 AEST, 13 September 2025 | Updated: 10: 07 AEST, 13 September 2025 5 View comments After being kept on the bench on the opening weekend of the Women's Super League, Sam Kerr is set to be finally unleashed after her 'tough' 20 months on the sidelines with injury. Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor confirmed on Friday that 'hopefully we'll see' the Matildas captain in action at last at Aston Villa on Sunday after her eagerly awaited comeback was put on hold against Manchester City last weekend. Kerr was an unused substitute in the Blues' 2-1 win over the Citizens. 'I think Sam is ready, ' Bompastor said in a news conference. Kerr, who turned 32 on Wednesday, is tipped to start on the pine. 'She's doing everything she can to be available for the squad, available to start a game, ' Bompastor said. After 20 months sidelined with an ACL injury, Sam Kerr is finally set to return to football this weekend when Chelsea tackle Aston Villa Make your 7 picks by 12. 30pm every Saturday to win £1, 000* Manchester City V Manchester United *18+, excludes NI. Terms and conditions apply Kerr (pictured, with fiancée Kristie Mewis) has scored 99 career goals for the Blues in 128 matches since her debut in January of 2020 'Again, it's a balance between what she has been doing the last weeks and also the fact that maybe she's not like 100 per cent ready to start a game, but not far from that. ' The pressure of a tightly-contested opening win over fellow championship contenders Manchester City lay behind Bompastor's decision not to give her star striker a first appearance since December 2023, which was a month before she suffered the ACL injury that has sidelined her ever since. 'It was only my choice not to have Sam coming in in the game last weekend, but again she's had a good week, she's in a good place mentally, physically, so maybe on Sunday, we'll see, ' said Bompastor. Asked about how frustrating it had been for Kerr, who has scored 99 goals for the club, to miss out on a season when Chelsea won the WSL title for a sixth straight year, Bompastor conceded: 'Yeah, it's been tough. 'Even if Sam is someone really positive and she cares about the team and she always puts the team first, it's been tough for her personally. 'Being away from games, winning trophies as a competitive person, it's always difficult. 'So the best way for us as a staff and as a club to support her was to make sure we gave her a lot of support in different ways, having different conversations with her, but also making sure she could feel our love in those more difficult moments. 'I think she's part of the family, and she could feel that when she was injured, which is something really important for her. 'Now she's just happy to be back, not officially yet in the game, but around the team in training sessions. 'She played some minutes in pre-season, so the next step for her is to be involved in an official game in the league, and hopefully we'll see that on Sunday. '
Share what you think
The comments below have not been moderated.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mail Online.
By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your Mail Online comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to Mail Online as usual. Do you want to automatically post your Mail Online comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to Mail Online as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on Mail Online. To do this we will link your Mail Online account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy. Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd