Sam Kerr, one of the best players in all of women’s soccer, suffered a major knee injury during warm-weather training for Chelsea. The Chelsea women’s team traveled to Morocco to continue training and get out of the cold weather in London. However, the Australian is going to miss considerable time, and perhaps the remainder of the season, because of her injury.

The diagnosis of Kerr’s injury was an all-too-common one for soccer fans. Kerr suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. Generally, the recovery time for an ACL injury can last eight months. Unfortunately for Kerr, this injury comes on the back of her absence from the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. Kerr has regularly battled ACL injuries in her career. Injuries back in 2014 and 2015 almost ended Kerr’s career prematurely.

Now, Chelsea has said it is going to do further tests with Kerr before beginning the rehabilitation process. Chelsea returns to play in the Women’s FA Cup on Jan. 14. Then, the league leaders look for a fifth straight Women’s Super League title when the season continues on Jan. 21. Kerr’s absence will be felt in each of those competitions.

Originally, Kerr signed for Chelsea in 2019. Since then, she has been the club’s top scorer in each of the last four seasons. This year, she has the most goals for Chelsea in all competitions. In total, Kerr has made 128 appearances with Chelsea. In those games, Kerr has an astronomical 99 goals. Kerr helped collect nine trophies in her four seasons with Chelsea.

Knee injury to Sam Kerr is major blow to Chelsea women

However, Sam Kerr’s ambitions with Chelsea go beyond the Women’s Super League or Women’s FA Cup. The only trophy the Chelsea women’s team has not won is the Women’s Champions League. In the 2020/21 Women’s Champions League, Sam Kerr was part of the Chelsea team that finished runner-up to Barcelona. Kerr was in the squad of the season for the Women’s Champions League in that season.

Sam Kerr was in the top three in Women’s Ballon d’Or voting in each of the last three years. Most recently, that included a runner-up finish to Aitana Bonmati of Spain. Her goal record speaks about how integral Kerr is to the squad. It was her ability alone that made Australia a contender for the 2023 Women’s World Cup. Her goal in the semifinal against England was one of the highlight moments of the World Cup.

Chelsea still a contender in all competitions

Even though Emma Hayes will have a major task replacing Kerr, Chelsea is still arguably the best squad in the Women’s Super League. With players like Lauren James and Aggie Beever-Jones, Chelsea is able to score goals with relative ease.

Of course, Chelsea’s next task in the Women’s Super League is a game against Mary Earps and Manchester United. Earps, who is the best goalkeeper in women’s soccer, leads the Women’s Super League in clean sheets this season. No team has held Chelsea to a clean sheet this season in domestic play.

PHOTOS: IMAGO.