{"id":349523,"date":"2023-11-26T23:44:51","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T00:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=349523"},"modified":"2023-11-27T02:01:38","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T02:01:38","slug":"matildas-game-changer-recalled-after-brief-axing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=349523","title":{"rendered":"Matildas&#039; game-changer recalled after brief axing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alex Chidiac has been reinstated in the <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/matildas\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Matildas\">Matildas<\/a>&#x27; squad for the team&#x27;s upcoming two-match series against Canada after three injuries led to a shake-up.<\/p>\n<p>World Cup heroes Mackenzie Arnold and Charlotte Grant, along with elevated prospect Holly McNamara, have been ruled out of the international friendlies with injury\ufeff.<\/p>\n<p>McNamara was previously withdrawn from the squad last Tuesday after receiving confirmation that she had ruptured her right ACL while playing for Melbourne City in the A-League.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/football\/terry-venables-dead-news-aged-89former-socceroos-and-england-coach\/6bcd1bf2-03ae-46f7-932b-b0b90e2799f6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Ange&#x27;s ultimate tribute for late former Socceroos coach<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/football\/news-2023-lucas-neill-interview-bankruptcy-court-case-acquittal\/43247b18-0e16-4e9e-b9c0-136957874296\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Socceroos star breaks silence after avoiding prison<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/tennis\/davis-cup-final-results-2023-italy-defeat-australia-alexei-popyrin-alex-de-minau\/1e916b8c-2f44-492c-8e9e-7954620cc54e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>Aussies shattered as Davis Cup drought continues<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"01a1b0bb-07cd-473b-a9f8-9c8b7aece92b\" src=\"https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/01a1b0bb-07cd-473b-a9f8-9c8b7aece92b\" alt=\"Australia&#x27;s Alex Chidiac looks up into the stands following the Matildas&#x27; loss to Nigeria.\" data-width=\"1396\" data-height=\"785\" \/><\/p>\n<p>During a standard \ufeffpre-camp evaluation, Grant was diagnosed with a hamstring injury, ruling her unavailable, while an arm injury will sideline Arnold.<\/p>\n<p>Matildas coach \ufeffTony Gustavsson has since named midfielder Chidiac, forward Remy Siemsen and goalkeeper Jada Whyman as replacements in the 23-player squad for the team&#x27;s training camp in British Columbia.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/football\/news-2023-matildas-australia-canada-series-alex-chidiac-holly-mcnamara\/8fb5cad2-5481-48b3-a113-d67c1b5f29ef\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"Chidiac&#x27;s \ufeffinitial cut from the squad\">Chidiac&#x27;s \ufeffinitial cut from the squad<\/a> made way for World Cup squad member Aivi Luik, McNamara and striker Charlize Rule.<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old Chidiac had brief cameos in three of the Matildas&#x27; <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/fifa-womens-world-cup\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" title=\"FIFA Women&#x27;s World Cup\">FIFA Women&#x27;s World Cup<\/a> matches and featured in Australia&#x27;s games during the second round of qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the Matildas&#x27; run to the semi-finals at the World Cup, <a href=\"https:\/\/wwos.nine.com.au\/football\/fifa-womens-world-cup-2023-alex-chidiac-backs-tony-gustavsson-tactics-amid-calls-to-validate-her-role-in-australia-matildas-team\/3896d74b-7efb-4b07-9e10-701e29a8c374\" title=\"Gustavsson was heavily criticised\" target=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gustavsson was heavily criticised<\/a> for repeatedly overlooking and misusing Chidiac, who he dubbed one his &#x27;game changers&#x27;.<\/p>\n<p>Playing a total of 23 minutes, not including stoppage time, throughout the tournament, \ufeffChidiac was deployed late in matches and during situations when there was little opportunity to make any real impact on the scoreline.<\/p>\n<p><img data-id=\"6bb18816-d0df-4b09-a46f-4e17b6c488ff\" src=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/cef8f8f0-4282-4469-bd9b-7c20de517855-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Young gun falls short\" data-width=\"3204\" data-height=\"1802\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Hailing from \ufeffLeicester City and Sydney FC respectively, Siemsen and Whyman participated in the Matildas&#x27; pre-World Cup training camp.<\/p>\n<p>The hamstring injury to Grant comes at a regrettable time with the 22-year-old departing her \ufeffSwedish club Vittsj\u00f6 GIK with no confirmation of where she is headed.<\/p>\n<p>The Matildas will use their two international friendlies against Canada as preparation for the final leg of Olympic qualification, capping their stellar year with matches in Victoria, British Columbia on December 2 (AEDT) and Vancouver on December 6.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Alex Chidiac has been reinstated in the Matildas&#x27; squad for the team&#x27;s upcoming two-match series against Canada after three injuries led to a shake-up. World <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=349523\" title=\"Matildas&#039; game-changer recalled after brief axing\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":319730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=349523"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":349529,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349523\/revisions\/349529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/319730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=349523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=349523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=349523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}