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Sam Kerr’s 634-day wait finally ends. Plus: An update on Savannah DeMelo

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The WNBA playoffs started yesterday (make sure you’re caught up), and NWSL players are showing love to their fellow athletes.

Also in Full Time today:

🔙 Kerr’s back on the pitch

🏥 Update on DeMelo’s medical emergency

⚽ Meet another record-breaking goalscorer

Kerr has waited long enough, so we’ll start there …

Big Returns

634 days.

That’s how long it took for Chelsea striker Sam Kerr to return to the pitch after a nearly two-year injury recovery. The 32-year-old Australian tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during warm-weather training with Chelsea in January 2024.

Coming on in the 75th minute for Johanna Rytting Kaneryd yesterday, Kerr provided an exclamation point to Chelsea’s 3-1 win over Aston Villa with a scrappy goal, continuing the title-holder’s unbeaten start to the Women’s Super League season. It was also her 100th goal with the club.

Theo Lloyd-Hughes was at the match for us and described the moment Kerr made her long-awaited return:

💬 “In one corner, a Beatles-esque scream erupted from the away fans in blue. In the other, a chorus of boos from the locals clad in claret.”

For Kerr, several emotions washed over, but above all else was relief.

“I feel like it’s nice to finally be out there and have people stop talking about an injury,” she said after the match. “Now, they can start talking about goals.”

For Kerr, the only constant is change

The last 20 months have not been simple.

Kerr embarked on a long personal and professional journey in the last two years, complete with setbacks and triumphs, including new coaches and teammates, missing the Olympics with Australia, a complex legal trial and a new baby. Quickly, here were the mile markers along the way:

Jan. 26, 2024 — Chelsea signs Colombian striker Mayra Ramírez from Levante for a near-$500,000 record transfer fee shortly after Kerr’s injury.

May 20, 2024 — Former Chelsea head coach Emma Hayes joins the U.S. women’s national team, naming her first roster. Former OL Lyonnes manager Sonia Bompastor takes over at Chelsea, ending Hayes’ 12-year run at the club.

July 31, 2024 — Australia, without Kerr, falls 2-1 to the eventual gold medal-winning USWNT at the Paris Games.

Aug. 1, 2024 — After an early exit from the Olympics, Australia parts ways with head coach Tony Gustavsson. Joe Montemurro is appointed as his successor on June 2, 2025.

Jan. 26, 2025 — Chelsea signs USWNT defender Naomi Girma for a then-record $1.1 million transfer fee.

Feb. 11, 2025 — Kerr is found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment of a police officer, stemming from an incident that had occurred in January 2023.

May 2025 — Chelsea ends the WSL season having won a sixth consecutive league title, the League Cup and the FA Cup, completing an undefeated season under Bompastor.

May 8, 2025 — Kerr and fiancée Kristie Mewis share news of the birth of their son, Jagger.

Sep. 4, 2025 — The WSL window closes, and Chelsea announces the signing of U.S. winger Alyssa Thompson from Angel City FC.

Just five of the 15 players who’d featured in Kerr’s last game for Chelsea (a 3-1 win over BK Hacken in the UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage in December 2023) featured against Villa on Sunday. Still, her teammates were quick to push her in front of the crowd in celebration after the match.

Bompastor called Kerr an idol, and during an interview with Sky Sports after the match, goalkeeper Hannah Hampton equated the return to having an “extra signing” in an already successful transfer window.

Thompson makes her Chelsea debut

Not to be lost in Kerr’s return was Thompson’s debut in Chelsea blue.

The USWNT forward missed the home opener last week, as the ink was barely dry on her deal to leave her hometown and Angel City for the WSL side.

The 20-year-old American came off the bench at halftime yesterday, showing flashes of why Chelsea paid over $1.3 million to sign her. Thompson, like Kerr, will need some time to adjust, and the two even combined for an attempt on goal, with Kerr opting to lay off a pass to Thompson instead of shooting herself. As with Kerr, there was relief for Thompson, whose quick but tangled move to Chelsea included late nights, tears and customary pizza. The Athletic takes you behind the latest deal to move an American abroad.

NWSL News: DeMelo ‘stable and alert’ after on-field collapse

The NWSL weekend wrapped with a scary moment last night, when Racing Louisville midfielder Savannah DeMelo experienced a medical emergency.

The 27-year-old was treated on the field by the medical staff of both teams before being transported to a local hospital for further evaluation. Racing reported she was “stable and alert.”

The match between Louisville and the home side, Seattle Reign, was abandoned shortly after the incident at the end of the first half. The referee signaled halftime with the score tied at zero. The match will be resumed later this season and will start from the time the game was abandoned.

DeMelo also had a medical incident in March while playing against Bay FC. The midfielder reported feeling a tightness in her chest and dizziness. She was taken off the field and to a hospital after that incident as well, then later shared that she had been diagnosed with Graves’ disease and hyperthyroidism last fall.

The teams currently hold the No. 7 and 8 spots in the league table — the last two playoff-qualifying positions.

Read more about the incident and NWSL’s response here.

Shaw’s record move to Gotham

Last week saw another record transfer, but this one stayed in the NWSL family.

Gotham FC paid North Carolina Courage $1.25 million to sign 20-year-old Jaedyn Shaw, more than doubling the previous record set when Ally Sentnor joined the Kansas City Current. The fee will be paid over multiple installments and entirely through intra-league funds, with Shaw signing on through 2029.

The club had been eyeing the USWNT rising talent since before she turned pro in 2022.

Gotham GM Yael Averbuch West told The Athletic’s “Full Time” podcast the club had asked “a number of times” about Shaw, but “always heard a ‘no.’” So, this time, the club came in with an aggressive offer too good to ignore.

Just 33 minutes into her club debut against the San Diego Wave on Friday, only a day after her first training with the team, Shaw scored a diving header off a clever cross from Jaelin Howell. After scoring, Shaw looked to the sky before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, as if this whirlwind week had been all worth it.

— Melanie Anzidei

Hi, My Name Is: Youngest goalscorer in U.S. women’s pro soccer

The guidance players receive from their managers just before making their debut on the pitch is cliché at this point: “Just go out there and have fun. Be yourself. You’re here for a reason.”

That was 15-year-old forward Rhea Moore’s remit from Dallas Trinity head coach Chris Petrucelli when the academy player subbed on for the United Soccer League’s first-division women’s side on Sept. 6. Dallas and Sporting Jax were locked in a scoreless draw when Moore took the pitch in the 74th minute. Eight minutes later, she found the back of the net and became the youngest player to score a goal in a professional women’s soccer game in the U.S.

Moore told me the moment was “a dream come true,” and that being enveloped by her teammates to celebrate — not to mention eventually securing the dub — made it all the sweeter.

I’ve now written about two young record-breaking goal scorers in the span of just over a week. Eight days before Moore’s goal, 16-year-old KK Ream of the Utah Royals wore the crown. Prior to that, the record was held by the Kansas City Current’s Alex Pfeiffer, who was also 16 at the time but older than Ream by a few months.

The spans of time between broken records in the women’s game are shrinking, not only among the youthful ballers but also in transfer fees. All signs point to the kind of growth that comes with expanded opportunities, and I don’t see either one slowing down any time soon.

— Tamerra Griffin

Full Time First Looks

Sitdown with Bronze: Ever wonder what it’s like to compete in a major continental tournament? Charlotte Harpur spoke with England defender Lucy Bronze for two hours in a London hotel, discussing broken bones and shinpad holes, the shock of losing key players before the Euros, her secret to the perfect penalty and the feeling of winning it all again. 📰 Read more here. 🎧 Listen to the conversation here.

Ciao, Florida: Mark your calendars because the U.S. just announced the location and opponent for their final matches of 2025. I know we are barely into September, but the air is getting crisp. Hayes’ squad will host Euro 2025 semifinalist Italy for two matches on Friday, Nov. 28 at Inter & Co Stadium in Orlando and on Monday, Dec. 1 at Chase Stadium in Ft Lauderdale.

Welcome home: Everton Women began a new era this weekend in their 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. On a rainy day, 6,473 fans watched their club officially lay claim to Goodison Park — the former home of the men’s team. Still, the team remains a complex work in progress on and off the pitch.

Missing cleats: It’s been zero days since nonsense at Manchester United. The latest: a case of missing cleats ahead of the team’s Women’s Champions League loss to Brann over the weekend. The team used a private charter both ways and still managed to leave behind crucial equipment and had to buy about 14 pairs of cleats from a local shop in Bergen.

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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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