Matildas star Mary Fowler has been ruled out of upcoming friendly matches against Germany and Haiti due to personal circumstances.<\/p>\n
Football Australia confirmed on Tuesday morning Fowler would not feature in the upcoming international window, with four-cap Charlton midfielder Leah Davidson called up in her place.<\/p>\n
\u201cMary Fowler has been withdrawn from the October international window due to personal circumstances,\u201d FA said in a statement. \u201cThe decision was made following discussions between Fowler, Manchester City and Matildas staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fowler\u2019s partner, NRL player Nathan Cleary, is recovering in Australia from surgery after suffering a horrific ankle break in the Panthers\u2019 preliminary final loss to the Knights. He also under went an operation on a stress fracture in his right foot and is facing a lengthy period of recuperation.<\/p>\n
Fowler\u2019s absence is a blow for coach Joe Montemurro ahead of the two important friendlies.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old has been in terrific form for club Manchester City and likely would have played a key role in both games as Australia\u2019s best creative attacking player.<\/p>\n
The Matildas are already without star midfielder Kyra Cooney-Cross for this window.<\/p>\n
The games against Germany in Karlsruhe on Saturday AEDT and Haiti in Chambly next Wednesday serve as critical preparation for next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Fowler has been in good form for Manchester City. Photograph: Aidan Hunter\/Action Plus\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
But forward Holly McNamara, fresh from a move from Melbourne City to Everton, says the Matildas won\u2019t linger on Fowler\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had people coming in and out for the last little while, so you get used to it,\u201d McNamara said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially in a national team set-up where you don\u2019t have much time. You have about 10 days usually on a camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to adapt pretty quickly to new players … because you actually don\u2019t have time to sit around and wait. Whoever\u2019s in the team learns that pretty quickly and hopefully we can do that this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matildas veteran Hayley Raso couldn\u2019t offer an explanation to Fowler\u2019s absence.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t spoken to Mary. I only just found out the news myself,\u201d Raso said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMary\u2019s a really valuable player for our team, so it\u2019s sad that she\u2019s not here at this camp.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has to take care of some personal circumstances, and we\u2019re really happy that Leah\u2019s here and looking forward to welcoming her back into the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Montemurro has been keen to test his Matildas team against a variety of opponents.<\/p>\n
World No 3 Germany are an ominous prospect while world No 47 Haiti have the powers of Ellie Carpenter\u2019s former Lyon teammate Melchie Dumornay, one of the best attackers in the world.<\/p>\n
Davidson, 25, has been rewarded after making an off-season move from Melbourne City to England\u2019s top flight with newly-promoted Charlton. The midfielder has four caps and one goal since her debut in 2024.<\/p>\n
Every player in the squad except Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Courtney Newbon is based overseas. Newbon, Hana Lowry and Tori Tumeth are the only uncapped players in the squad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matildas star Mary Fowler has been ruled out of upcoming friendly matches against Germany and Haiti due to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-637919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}