“When it comes to the training, I totally understand if you didn’t see the training, if I were you sitting out there, I’d go ‘what the heck is happening in trainings?'” Matildas head coach Tony Gustavsson said with a laugh.
He was referring to the news that both Mary Fowler and Aivi Luik would miss Australia’s clash with Nigeria following two separate concussion incidents in training on Jul. 25th.
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In that moment when the news dropped, Matildas fans must have felt like the whole world was conspiring against this team at this tournament.
Of course, concussion is nothing to play fast and loose with and Football Australia’s concussion guidelines meant the players had to be ruled out for a minimum of six days. If their concussions weren’t treated seriously, the national team setup would quite rightly have been severely criticised.
But doing the right thing arguably wouldn’t have felt so bad if not for these injuries coming off the back of Sam Kerr’s calf injury which ruled her out of the Matildas opening two World Cup games.
A call on Kerr likely won’t be made until the day before the Canada match with Gustavsson admitting “we want to wait until the last minute to see where she’s at in terms of availability.”
But with the nation’s anxiety already heightened following the skipper’s injury, the news of Fowler and Luik felt like a gut punch. How could one team have such bad luck? Especially at their home tournament? Didn’t the football gods have any sense of occasion?
