Australia boss Tony Gustavsson offers fitness update on Sam Kerr ahead of Matildas' must-win World Cup clash

• Kerr suffering from a calf problem
• Missed the first two matches
• Gustavsson will wait for Kerr until the last minute

WHAT HAPPENED? It was a huge blow for the Matildas when they learnt that the Chelsea forward will miss the opener against Ireland on Thursday and their second group game against Nigeria after picking up a calf problem during training. Although the co-hosts beat Ireland, they went on to suffer a shock 3-2 loss to Nigeria which makes their tie against Canada a must-win match if they are to qualify for the knockouts without depending on other results.

Gustavsson revealed that he is still unsure whether he can call up Kerr for the final group game as she needs to pass a late fitness test.

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WHAT THEY SAID: "We won't get confirmation (on her fitness) until the night before the game. It might even be where we need to test her to see if she can play on game day. That's how tight it is. She's going to do anything she can to be out there. I know that she'll want to be out there and she deserves to be out there," the coach informed.

"If she's available we're going to need to come up with a plan together to see what we can do to maximise the potential minutes she has - if she's available," added Gustavsson.

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Australia find themselves in a spot of bother as they are running thin on attacking options as Mary Fowler is a doubt because of concussion, whereas, Tottenham striker Kyah Simon is nursing a long-term knee ligament injury. Despite the troubles, Gustavsson insisted that he was pleased with the attacking display against Nigeria and believes that his team performed better than what the scorecard read.

"We had 28 shots, scored two goals, the attacking game was much, much improved compared to the Ireland game. I'm disappointed about the result but I can't let the result blind the performance. I know it's hard to see, but there is part of this performance that is better than the result shows," he stated.

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WHAT NEXT? Kerr is Australia's highest international scorer with 63 goals to her name, and the nation faces an anxious wait to see if she will be in time for Monday's crunch clash.