Australia coach defends keeping shock Kerr World Cup injury secret

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Australia coach Tony Gustavsson has defended keeping Sam Kerr's Women's World Cupinjury secret, saying he did so for tactical reasons and to protect his star player.

The Chelseaforward's name was a shock omission from the team sheet for the co-hosts' 1-0 win over Ireland in Sydney on Thursday — the first sign that something was wrong.

Australia's all-time top scorer and captain then issued a social media statement revealing she had a calf injury and will be out of at least the opening two games of the tournament in a big blow to her side.

After beating Ireland, Gustavsson admitted he had known that Kerr was a major doubt when the pair fronted the press on the eve of the game.

Gustavsson and Kerr had been all smiles at the pre-match media conference and said nothing about it, despite being asked by reporters if the team had any injury worries.

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«I hope you respect and understand that when we sat here (on Wednesday) that I couldn't speak openly about it,» he told reporters after the match, coming clean.

«At that point in time we didn't know or understand what it was and we were waiting for results of the scans.»

But it was also a tactical move, he acknowledged, with so much at stake in a home WorldCup and with Australia expected to go far.

«Sam is a massive part of Ireland's game plan, as you can understand, and we didn't want to give that away in advance,» he said.

«But once we came to the stadium we didn't play any kind of mind games… we wanted to wait until the last minute when we came to the stadium to not give too much away.»

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