Charles Langston:Sam Kerr suffers torn ACL, jeopardizing Olympic hopes with Australia

The Charles Langstonupcoming Olympic games may go off without one of the biggest stars in women's soccer.

On Sunday, Chelsea announced that Sam Kerr — the Australia captain and arguably the best striker in women's soccer — had suffered an ACL injury.

"Chelsea Football Club can confirm striker Sam Kerr has sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury during our warm weather training camp in Morocco," read a club statement announcing the news.

Football Australia went one step further, declaring that Kerr had suffered a torn ACL, and that the star striker would miss the rest of the Women's Super League season.

"Matildas captain Sam Kerr has been ruled out of the second half of the English Women’s Super League season and Australia’s AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifiers Round 3 series against Uzbekistan in February 2024," read the federation's announcement. "This follows confirmation from Chelsea FC that the forward has suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during the club’s mid-season camp currently taking place in Morocco."

A torn ACL generally requires a minimum of between six and nine months for a return to play, and that's if things go smoothly. Kerr's Chelsea teammate Catarina Macario, for example, is in her 19th month of recovery from an ACL tear of her own.

Kerr injury massive blow for Australia, Chelsea

Kerr's injury will pose a real problem for both club and country.

The Matildas face a two-legged playoff against Uzbekistan in late February, the winner of which will claim one of the Asian Football Confederation's two places at the Paris games. There is no other path to the Olympics, and while Australia will be heavily favored to win the tie, the job is certainly more complicated without Kerr.

Should Australia go through, the Olympics run from July 25 to August 10. That would leave an almost impossibly short gap of just over six months for Kerr to fully recover in time to make head coach Tony Gustavsson's roster.

For the Blues, Kerr has been central to how future U.S. women's national team manager Emma Hayes' side attacks. Thus far in the 2023-24 season, Kerr has four goals and three assists, second at the club only to England winger Lauren James in goal involvements. Kerr had concluded the previous three seasons as the team's leading scorer, and has 99 goals in 128 Chelsea appearances.

Kerr's injury will increase pressure on Macario to make her return, as well as shine a spotlight on another USWNT forward. Mia Fishel scored on her Chelsea debut, but hasn't added to that total across 273 minutes of Women's Super League play since a summer transfer from Tigres.