Chelsea striker Sam Kerr is undergoing surgery on Thursday following her ACL injury, manager Emma Hayes has confirmed.
Kerr sustained the injury during a warm weather training camp in Morocco and will miss the remainder of the Women’s Super League (WSL) season.
“She’s having surgery today (Thursday),” Hayes said, speaking ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup tie against West Ham.
“I’m gutted for her and gutted for the team. These things happen in football and she knows that. The important thing is that we are here to support her, and the recovery and rehab begins today.”
Kerr joined Chelsea in 2019 and has gone on to score 99 goals in 128 matches. She has won four WSL titles with the club, as well as three FA Cups and two League Cups.
The 30-year-old featured for Australia at last summer’s Women’s World Cup, missing the group stage with a calf injury, but returning for the knockout stage as the joint-hosts reached the semi-finals, where they lost to eventual runners-up England.
Kerr has scored four goals and recorded three assists in eight WSL games this term for Chelsea — who lead Manchester City by three points at the top of the table — and Hayes said she would have to find “solutions” to her absence.
“Sam would expect me to say nothing less; our focus has to be on the fit players,” Hayes said. “We have a quality squad and the challenge for me as a coach is to find those solutions.
“I trust in our squad. The focus and the attention has to be on the players who are here.”
After their FA Cup game, Chelsea return to WSL action against Manchester United on January 21.
(Photo: Getty Images)
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