ELLEN WHITE: Fit or not Sam Kerr must play

There's no doubt in my mind that if Sam Kerr is fit then she will start against England. You simply cannot leave a player of her quality on the bench, even if she is a little short of match sharpness.

It’s such a shame we have only seen glimpses of her at the World Cup so far due to the calf injury she picked up on the eve of the tournament.

I know that Sam absolutely adores playing for her country and will be chomping at the bit to get out there, especially for a World Cup semi-final in front of a 75,000-strong home crowd.

She has only played 77 minutes so far but I actually think that could work in her favour. She will be fresh and raring to go up against her Chelsea team-mate Millie Bright, who I know she gets on very well with.

If she does play then naturally a lot of focus from an English perspective will be on Sam but you can’t forget that her Australian team-mates have taken the Matildas within one win of the final in her absence.

I think Mary Fowler has been one of the stand-out players of the tournament. The 20-year-old has shown maturity beyond her years and has been a real driving force for the team. Then you’ve got the threat of Hayley Raso and Caitlin Foord out wide, whose pace could cause England real problems.

But Kerr playing through the middle takes this Australian attack to a whole new level. When she came on against France her first touch of the ball was greeted by an almighty roar and that will really help to lift the whole team.

A lot has been made of the atmosphere the home supporters will generate in Sydney tomorrow but that will be nothing new for most of these England players, who have played in environments like that before for both club and country.

They handled the occasion well in the quarter-final against Colombia when the stands were a sea of yellow.

The best thing Sarina Wiegman’s side can do is to get on the front foot early. Silence the crowd and settle the nerves with an early goal or big tackle. That would be the perfect antidote to the noise.

I’ve spoken in this column previously about how I felt that Alessia Russo hasn’t been getting the goals her performances have deserved so far.

So I was delighted to see her bag one against Colombia. That was a classic Alessia Russo goal; using her strength and power to get past defenders followed with a really clean finish across the keeper.

That will give her more confidence going into the game against Australia and I think the hosts’ defence will be really fearful if Sarina goes with a 3-5-2 formation with Lauren Hemp and Russo up top.

I only touched down in Australia a few days ago but what has really struck me is how the country has been gripped with World Cup fever. I’m sure it’s the same in New Zealand too.

This tournament can only have a positive impact on the grassroots game in Australia and the hosts will certainly have inspired the next generation and left a legacy for them with their run to the semi-final.

We saw the same sort of impact on the women’s game when we won the Euros last summer.

Funding, which has only been made possible thanks to the investment from National Lottery players, has helped to really make the most of that. Nearly 200 clubs have benefitted from their funding to create new girls teams off the back of last summer’s success, which is amazing.

Whatever happens on the pitch on Wednesday, I hope to see even more teams created and young girls and boys participating in football not just in the UK but across the world.

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