Karly Roestbakken has made a remarkable return to the pitch in the last month to round out her injury-riddled year on a high and is looking to start 2022 on the front foot.
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Already the Canberran is back in Matildas contention, as she looks to earn her first national team minutes since April last year.
The defender made a swift return to the pitch for Canberra United in her six-week stint in the capital, marking her first full 90-minutes since her foot injury left her sidelined for more than six months.
In a matter of weeks she went from about 10 minutes of game time in Norway's 2021 Toppserien league season to amounting more than 380 minutes in the A-League Women's.
The 20-year-old's work to get back on the pitch has been rewarded, as she was one of four players named to vie for the two remaining spots in Tony Gustavsson's Asian Cup squad.
Twenty-one players have been locked in and an additional four - Roestbakken, Winonah Heatley, Holly McNamara and Cortnee Vine - have been selected to fight to round out the 23-player squad at a training camp in the United Arab Emirates before the tournament.
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Roestbakken will be competing with Heatley for the final defensive role, while McNamara and Vine will battle it out in attack.
The outcome of the camp, and whether she lcan add to her seven national caps, will also likely coincide with Roestbakken's 21st birthday on January 17, before the cup kicks off three days later.
Roestbakken's injury-riddled 2021 began with the Matildas in a friendly against Germany, when her foot injury reached breaking point.
One silver lining out of her year was her ability to return home to Canberra on loan to United from her Norwegian club LSK Kvinner FK until January 8 to help her gain experience and match minutes.
In a statement last month, however, LSK said Roestbakken's loan could be extended for an additional month.
The final decision will come down to if she makes the Australian side's squad to play in Mumbai against Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.
The likely replacement in United's starting XI for Roestbakken - if she makes the Matildas squad - would be Hayley Taylor-Young, if United's head coach Vicki Linton returns to a 4-3-3 formation.
If Linton opts to keep the 3-4-3 formation, however, Laura Hughes will likely be the loan player's replacement out wide.
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Isobel Cootes
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
Sports reporter at The Canberra Times. A Novocastrian with a passion for football (or soccer as they call it in the capital) via The Examiner and The Port Lincoln Times.
