Matildas star Sally Shipard writes

Hi I’m Sally Shipard.

I love playing football but sometimes it can be frustrating.

The last time I played was in Russia at the Youth World Cup in 2006.

Over the past 9 months the true meaning of patience has been embedded in my brain.
I had stress fractures in my navicular and a piece of bone removed from my talus bone in my right foot. Considering I was told originally I would be out for 2 months the time has definitely dragged on.

The injuries I sustained were ‘over-use’ injuries. At the World Cup, in Russia, our team had high expectations, which we did not live up to. Hopefully we can make up for it this year at the Senior World Cup to be held in September.

For the last 3 months I have been working through ‘rehab’ levels and completed my final test on Saturday. I officially started training with the ACTAS (ACT Academy squad) girls on Monday night.

We have a camp at the AIS this weekend, the Matilda’s final selection camp before our most important matches of the year. It’s our final stage of Olympic qualifying games to be played against North Korea. I’m hoping to be in contention for selection, the games to be played on 4th and 10th of June.

SBS are televising the games, so please tune in and support the Australian Matilda’s!

4th June North Korea v Matildas
10th June Matildas v North Korea (Coffs Harbour International Stadium.)