Is Sam Kerr playing for the Matildas at Paris Olympics? Brutal twist for Aussie star and fiancee

Football fans watching the Olympics in Paris will be robbed of seeing one of the best women's players on the planet, with Sam Kerr not available for the Matildas due to injury. The superstar striker ruptured her ACL in January during a training camp with club team Chelsea.

There had been hopes that Kerr could play a part in the latter stages of the Matildas' campaign, but that was put to bed in May when she was left out of the Australian squad. The usual recovery time for an ACL injury is 9-12 months, and with the Olympics kicking off in late July and running into August it would be eight months after Kerr's surgery.

In the end it proved too much of a risk to carry Kerr in the squad and coach Tony Gustavsson made the decision to leave her out. On top of her own heartache at missing the Olympics, Kerr was also rocked by the unexpected news that fiancee Kristie Mewis was left out of the American squad last month.

Sam Kerr's fiancee Kristie Mewis also won't be playing

Kerr and Mewis went head-to-head at last year's Women's World Cup in Australia, playing for the Matildas and USA respectively. But they'll both be missing from the Olympics after the USA left out Mewis in a big shake-up to their squad.

Veteran player Alex Morgan was also dumped, while Mewis was a casualty of the USA's disappointing World Cup campaign. Adrianna Franch, Abby Dahlkemper and former captain Becky Sauerbrunn were also axed as new coach Emma Hayes made her mark on the squad.

"It's not easy making a decision when there're only 16 outfield players and two goalkeepers on a roster of 18," Hayes said. "So it was a tough decision of course."

In an interesting side-note, Hayes was Kerr's long-time coach at Chelsea before she departed to become the boss of the USA women's team. But there was no time for sentiment as Hayes opted not to pick Kerr's fiancee Mewis.

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Mary Fowler ready to step up in Sam Kerr's absence at Olympics

With Kerr missing, the Matildas will be without some serious firepower up front in Paris. But they proved at the World Cup they can win without their inspirational captain, and they also had to go through qualifying without Kerr as well.

A lot of the Matildas' attack will now flow through young gun Mary Fowler, and she's well-and-truly up for the challenge. Fowler was only 18 when she played at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, and this time around she's much better prepared.

"The first one (Olympic Games) was a bit different because I wasn't expecting it and it was a childhood dream of mine to go to the Olympics, so I was in tears that I had achieved that," Fowler told AAP. "This time around, I'm just more tournament-based, football-based.

"I want to go there and I want to win, and I want to help the team as much as I can. I feel like I'm able to help out more compared to the last time when I was more of a bench player.

"Before, I maybe shied away a bit from having that responsibility. Because if you don't perform, then it's like, 'okay, well, you've got to take responsibility for not doing what the team needed.' Now I see it a bit differently, where if someone is putting that pressure on you or giving you a bit more responsibility in the team, it's because they believe in you and they think you're actually capable of doing that. So I take it as a bit of a pat on the back. I want to keep that standard and be consistent and do what I can to actually help the team win and not shy away from that."