View: Released Tottenham Women star Kyah Simon will look to make a point at upcoming World Cup
Former Tottenham Women’s player Kyah Simon has been included in Australia’s provisional squad ahead of the upcoming Women’s World Cup this summer despite not playing for eight months due to injury.
BBC Sport reported (20 June) the news that Simon had made the 29-player provisional squad, with coach Tony Gustavsson set to announce the final 23 at a later date.
The news comes just over two weeks after it was announced that the 31-year-old had been released by Tottenham in an official statement on the club website (2 June).
Simon had spent the majority of the season out injured after tearing her ACL in action for the club during October. However, she has still been given the opportunity to get into the final World Cup squad for her country which is to be hosted in her home nation.
She has been capped 111 times for Australia and will be hoping to make it 112 when they take on the Republic of Ireland on 20 July in their opening game of the tournament.
And Simon will perhaps have an extra incentive to perform well after not having been given the opportunity to continue with Tottenham following her injury. She made just 19 appearances in her two seasons with Spurs and scored on three occasions.
Her ACL injury however impacted what would eventually be her final season with the club and Simon may want to prove to her former side that they made a mistake by letting her go and not offering her a new deal.
Spurs’ women narrowly avoided relegation from the WSL last season and it will be interesting to keep an eye on how Simon performs at the World Cup, if she is to make the final squad, in order to see if the club perhaps missed a trick by not keeping her on in North London.
In other Tottenham news, the club was handed a big boost as they kept hold of an academy star.